Fast & Furious – Blu Ray Review

The Film:

They didn’t make The Fast and the Furious for artistic purposes. The original had enough action, car races, and beautiful girls to make any male in the ever so profitable demographic of 18-30 year hit the box-office enough for the film to be successful and spawn a fourth film, simply titled Fast & Furious. Also, in the original, Rob Cohen provided enough cool moments, like seeing the Nitro get injected into the car’s engine, and slow-mo finishes to make even the non-car geeks enjoy the car pornography. Personally, I can do without the two sequels that followed, 2 Fast 2 Furious and Tokyo Drift, which is absolutely fine now, because this film feels like a direct sequel to the original anyway.

Rob Cohen, the director of the first film, is a lot like a low-rent Michael Bay, in that he can deliver really good action, inventive action even, but struggles with dialogue scenes and drama. But in The Fast and the Furious, the collective of Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster, were enough to draw interest in the proceedings. I felt that was lacking in the other two sequels, but the gang’s all back now, and in my opinion, it’s all good.

Oh, don’t roll your eyes. A film like this exists for two reasons: one, car races, we all know how cinema has had a love affair with fast cars and cool crashes, and two, it’s a decent matinée film for a Saturday afternoon. That’s why I think the film is fine. It’s hardly class but it knows what it is, without faking and gets the job done. Justin Lin, the director, is no Rob Cohen, but delivers the action and adds a few neat visual flairs that keep the film moving. Its pace is commendable. Its a quick 100 minutes, never slowing down enough to show some of the rather weak plot points and makes some of the dialogue a-okay to with stand.

The opening scene, the one from the trailer, sets up the action, and gets us involved. As dopey as it was seeing that tanker engulfed in flames rolling down hill at Vin Diesel with Michelle Rodriguez freaking out, it kind of works in that fun, pulp action way. Even the hand held chase that Paul Walker and a criminal have through some buildings and streets keeps everything pumping. Everyone’s fine; Vin kicks ass, Jordana is given little to do, but looks stunning (eye candy), and Paul is well, Paul, but it’s good fun seeing the original crew together again. The film set up a reasonable story to bring them all back, it’s quick and fun, a perfect matinée film with car races. Simple things like this can equal a fun time at the theater on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, and in this current climate, that’s all we can hope for.

I’ve used the word “fun” twice, and that’s twice more than many films.

The Blu Ray:

Audio/Video: If you have a great home theater system, I mean, a really good one, then this disc’s DTS audio is a war zone for your speakers. Loud, definitely. Bass heavy, oh hell yes. It’s the type of track that’ll drive your neighbors nuts, but it really shines here on high def. Great track. The video really shines too. The night time scenes to the candy painted cars to the sweat off of Jordana Brewster’s face, everything is incredibly recreated and a film like this is made for high def.

Commentary: Justin Lin gives you a solid track filled with plenty of film making information. He’s an easy-going guy and this makes the track a fun listen. The track is also a U-Control option, a similar themed feature like a virtual film class, as Lin is shown on screen breaking down the film scene-by-scene. Pretty cool.

All extras are in HD.

Los Bandoleros: This is cool feature, as it’s a short film directed by Vin Diesel as a prelude to Fast & Furious. Yes, it might serve little overall purpose, but it’s fun, setting up the opening gas tank heist.

Getting the Gang Back Together: Perhaps nothing more than EPK material, I enjoyed the interviews here as each actor/actress discussed why they came back for the film.

Under the Hood: Split into two sections, “Muscle Cars” and “Imports”, this is all for the car geeks. They discuss each car in the film, and luckily, it’s interesting for even novices.

Driving School with Vin Diesel: This shows Vin in rehearsals for learning the car stunts he’ll do for the film. We act as a fly on the wall and is pretty candid.

Shooting the Big Rig Heist: Using behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, they break down the opening heist in detail. Good stuff for FX fans.

Races and Chases and High Octane Action are two similar themed featurettes on the work done for the awesome action and car races we see in the film. Makes you really appreciate what you have seen.

Gag Reel, Filming in Mexico, Music Video, Virtual Car Garage, a the Digital Copy round out the slew of extras.

Conclusion: It’s loud, fast, and fun, making this one of the better entries since the first film. Universal’s BD is a solid release across the board.

The Film: Rating:

The Blu Ray: Rating: