Fast & Furious (2009/aka Fast
& Furious IV/Universal DVD Set with Digital Copy + DVD single)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: D Film: D
As a
strictly money machine move set in the last awful installment, Fast & Furious (2009) has Vin
Diesel returning to the role of Dominic Toretto and Paul Walker is back
(in an A-list film after several misfires) as Brian O’Conner paired again after
Diesel as in the last minutes of the film.
For those unfamiliar with the series, you can read more about it in our
old HD-DVD trilogy coverage at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4335/The+Fast+&+The+Furious+Trilogy
Tokyo Drift was the third and last film, not
the biggest one and Diesel was in there as insurance in case it was not a
hit. In a plot that is essentially a
dumbed-down version of the James Bond film Licence
To Kill (1989, reviewed elsewhere on this site) for morons, O’Conner is now
an FBI agent (in the Bond film, CIA agent Felix Leiter was now a DEA agent) and
teams up with Toretto (that makes him Timothy Dalton with a touch of Telly
Savalas) trying to break a heroin ring.
It is so derivative and obvious that in between more sexed-up car races,
the film borrows liberally from the Bonds the way Diesel’s XXX films did.
The
opening sequence is even a bad rip-off of Kill’s
tanker sequence with no point and it just goes downhill from there as actually
worse than the last film. It was a hit
because it was off-season and was lucky enough to land Jordana Brewer and
Michelle Rodriguez. Besides that, it
will always be ironic that the car companies were having so much trouble when
this was a hit, but it is a desperate sequel that is predictable as anything,
formulaic, tired and as empty as its recycled title.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is surprisingly weak and for being shot
in Super 35mm film (by Vantage Point
Director of Photography Amir M. Mokri) looks like a bad HD shoot with all the
digital downgrading and manipulations.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is strained but active, though we bet this
plays better on Blu-ray. Nevertheless,
it is no improvement in performance over the previous films either.
Extras
include gag reel, feature length commentary with Lin, four featurettes (on the
double set only) and a short film Diesel made a while ago called Los
Bandoleros! That has more
narrative structure than the last two films in the series!
- Nicholas Sheffo
