Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.
disgusting, overrated, pointless
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
View MoreLet me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
View MoreDirected by Justin LinStarring Paul Walker, Vin Disel and John Ortiz Plot Overview: When a crime brings them back to the mean streets of Los Angeles, fugitive ex-convict Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and agent Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) reignite their high-octane feud. However, when a common enemy rears his head, Dom and Brian must learn how to work together and trust one another in order to defeat him.If you still enjoy this franchise, and truly care about these character: don't watch this movie. It is by far the worst film in the franchise and contains so little enjoyment and substance that I honestly think it's unbelievably lucky that 'Fast Five' was made. I honestly can't stand this film. None of the actors are good, some are remotely passable but that is still being very generous. The 'action' and 'set pieces' are so awful that I honestly believe the Drift Race in 'Tokyo Drift' was more exciting that this. It's one of the most boring, dullest movies I've seen in a long time and contains no genuine enjoyment to warrant a recommendation. If you need any more reasons to avoid this atrocity, then I will go more in depth.Saying Vin Disel is a 'bad actor' was pretty generous for this movie. You could tell me he's a robot and I would completely believe you because he's one of the most dull, bland, barren, boring, emotionless, robotic actors that still work today. He can't emit any emotions other than HAPPY, ANGRY and MUMBLE-y. It amazes me he still gets work because I don't see what the appeal of him as an actor. Paul Walker was, to be fair, passable as Brian O'Connor but even then he was extremely basic and didn't do much to impress. John Ortiz was very weak as the Brauga. The villain in the movie was also incredibly weak.There is no real story that runs through this movie and any glimmer of hope that one might exist is locked in Torreto's car and put in front a train. The ending was pretty cool and looked very neat.Technically, this movie is immensely flawed. The cinematography was absolutely dreadful and the lighting was genuinely depressing. The editing was awful and it's some of the worst cinematography I've seen in a pretty long time. The effects were pretty nice but they weren't exactly a primary focus and didn't affect the quality of the movie.The main thing this movie needed to do was provide really good and enjoyable action/set pieces. This movie completely failed to do that. As stated before, I would rather watch Lucas Black face of against the 'Drift King' and would rather watch Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibson drive out of a garage with 10,000 cars again than sit through the truly, truly awful action sequences in this movie.This movie tried to replace the 'fun moments' with 'dramatic moments' which I would normally be fine with but it was done so incredibly poorly. It wasn't needed for this type of film and just felt so forced and tacked on.In conclusion, there is a reason people don't refer to this movie when talking about the 'Fast and Furious' franchise. I can't say anyone should watch this movie because it just isn't worth the watch.3/10Wouldn't Recommend
View MoreThe fourth installment of the series brings back the original cast as they take on a Mexican dealer. Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) is reintroduced down in the Dominican Republic stealing oil with Lettie (Michelle Rodriguez) and Han (Sung Kang) in a spectacular explosive scene. Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) has rejoined the FBI, solving street-racing crimes and smuggling. When Letty winds up murdered, Dom returns to Los Angeles and seeks revenge. Dom beats up mechanics and O'Conner tracks his mayhem. When Ramon Campos (John Ortiz) hosts a race to interview new drivers to work for the mysterious dealer Arturo Braga, both Brian and Dom enter. Dom beats Brian to earn the job working for Braga. This chase looks great as the special effects are updated. Gisele (Gal Gadot) also works for Braga and finds Dom attractive. Brian also sparks anew his relationship with Mia (Jordana Brewster) though she is still bitter about him lying to her in the original film.Briand has another one of Campos's racers arrested so that he can join the other drivers transporting cargo. They are shipped across the border, given coordinates, and told to follow Fenix (Laz Alonso). They speed down into a tunnel beneath the Mexico-American border. Dom plays his hand, reveals he is on this mission for revenge and blows up all the race cars. Dom and Brian escape with Campos's supply, but then Dom becomes angry when he finds out Letty was working undercover for Brian, who is only able to stop Dom from beating him up when he reveals that she was doing it to gain Dom's freedom.Check out more of this review and others at swilliky.com
View MoreThere is nothing terribly remarkable about this movie. Basically, it's the kind of movie that would get pumped out of a formula for how to make a lot of money with a movie. I like the "New model. Original parts" tagline, but this really isn't that true. The only "original parts" are Dom, Brian, Mia, and sort of Letty. Pretty much every aspect is standard in quality, but tries to seem like it's really good. It's as if the writers think that by giving their characters a code and a few emotional moments, it means that the characters are deep, and that the actors give good performances just because they portray multiple emotions. The same goes for the action scenes, which are packed with crashes and explosions but really aren't that exciting. They held my attention, but not for that long. Besides, nearly every one of them involved cars and the action scenes were not shot well enough for me to actually comprehend what was happening in them. This was disappointing, because the FAF movies are never that strong in story, but can be entertaining as long as they have good action. Story is typically what drives a movie, but a bad story can be partially saved by some impressive action as with movies like Kingsman, the second Hobbit movie, or Mission Impossible 3. All of the action was standard and monotonous. Cars chase each other, get beat up, and the bad guys cars crash sooner or later, leaving Brian and Dom unscathed. Not much more really happens. In the filmmakers defense, they had a tough level of action to deal with here. The scale was larger than street fights, but nothing as huge-scale as the subsequent movies.The one aspect of the story that I found interesting was Brian trying to repair his relationship with Dom and Mia. He tries so many times to prove to them that he really is their friend, which is a difficult thing to do given the ending of the first movie. It would have been better if this had required Brian to change himself. Otherwise, the story was just a bunch of events strung together. It wasn't dramatically satisfying or anything like that. I had really hoped that Letty's death would lend this movie a more character-based story, but unfortunately her death turned out to just be a plot point.So, needless to say, my opinion of this fourth installment is not high. I suppose it's fine if you decide to watch it. It's no great work of cinema and probably won't even be your favorite of the series, but it might be entertaining. I would just recommend that you not bother yourself with figuring out the plot, because you won't enjoy the movie any better if you understand it. On a final note, it is somewhat impressive that this sequel was a financial success because of how pivotal its success was to the overall success of the series. Had this installment crashed and burned, the series would not be at the huge-scale level that it is today. Overall Rating: 7/10.
View MoreThe fourth instalment in The Fast and the Furious franchise and third in line when it comes to series chronology, Fast & Furious follows the events of the second film and works its way backwards to connect with whatever transpired in Tokyo Drift. And while it does bring back the original cast, the story is so dull & forgettable that it marks a new low for this franchise.Set 5 years after the events of The Fast and the Furious, Fast & Furious tells the story of Dominic Toretto as he returns to Los Angeles after learning of a tragic news while Brian O'Conner on the other hand is now a FBI agent and has been trying to track down a Mexican drug lord. As the two meet again & realise that they have a common enemy, they team up to infiltrate into his gang.Tediously directed by Justin Lin, I get it that this sequel is Lin's attempt to close the gap he himself created between the last two instalments but apart from seeing the original cast on screen again, there is nothing worth watching in this movie. Even the chase sequences are tiring & timidly filmed, visual effects are not wholly convincing and performances by its reprising cast is an absolute letdown.On an overall scale, Fast & Furious is the weakest entry in the long-running franchise so far and everything this unnecessary sequel tries to do only ends up working against it. Despite having seen it less than 24 hours ago, I've already forgotten most of its plot, can't recall anything that was impressive about it, and never for once cared about any of its characters. Bringing nothing new to the table, Fast & Furious is a sequel on a standstill.
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