Fast & Furious
Vin Diesel is back as Dom with fast cars, little plot and plenty of tough love as the fourth film in The Fast & The Furious series goes back around to its roots.
Film making 10/25
Cinematography 10/25
Audio 18/25
Bonus Features 18/25
Total 56/100
Dominic Toretto, played by Vin Diesel, is plying his trade of shipment jacking in the Dominican Republic with his girlfriend and crew but things are at an end for him. He finds out from his friend Han Lue that things are too hot for him as many countries police are looking for him.
Dom decides to leave his girlfriend and crew behind and go into hiding until things cool off but he finds out his girlfriend is killed. His sister, Mia Torretto played by Jordana Brewster shows him the spot she was run off the road and shot when he goes back home to find out what happened.
Dom finds out who is responsible for her death and goes to find out more only to end up running into FBI agent Brian O’Conner, played by Paul Walker. Agent O’Conner is also after the man behind her death but for drug running into the US but he has been having a hard time finding out who he is.
Brian has chased down a man named David Park in his search for the drug runner known as Braga but the FBI does not even have a picture of him. Both Dom and Brian vie for a position on Braga’s drug running crew by racing in the streets of Los Angeles to win a position on Braga’s crew.
Brian wants to arrest Braga while Dom wants to kill him but both have to find out just who he is and end up doing so after they capture a shipment of Braga’s drugs. Dom helps Brian haul Braga back across the border when an exchange for the drugs goes bad and Braga escapes but Dom does not get leniency for his past crimes.
The film ends with Dom being sentenced to 25 years to life in prison with no chance for parole but on the bus ride to the prison Brian leads a crew with Dom’s sister to break him out of the bus. The film follows along the lines of fast cars and a few shots of hot looking women but just as the previous films in the series does not concentrate enough on the story.
Fast & Furious could have been much better but the actual realistic content goes too far with the stunts and even the FBI agent O’Conner and how he fails to follow orders. The main characters of Dom and Brian may be fast friends and loyal to each when the chips are down but that is just so out of place and poorly acted that the story does not add up.
Fast & Furious was not a great film and reviewers could not see past the stunts and lack of a cohesive story line and poor acting so they gave it much like me a below average rating. Fast & Furious on Blu-ray does look good but not great and sound does much better with some very good lossless DTS-HD Master 5.1 Audio.
The video has some problems with color at times like too gold and other times bland and the CGI seems to be a bit too pronounced where you can tell parts that are computer animated. The video has its problems and is probably the worst of the series on Blu-ray but the audio does much better with its great clarity and good surround sound.
The Blu-ray contains plenty of additional content including a good audio commentary by director Justin Lin, a gag reel, deleted scenes and a short film called Los Bandoleros. The short film Los Badoleros tries to bring the previous two films and this one in perspective but it is a bit hard to follow and really does not do much for the cohesiveness of the films.
The other content from a gag reel and deleted scenes to the pop in features of Take Control are some of the better but still standard fare of a Blu-ray that adds to the features and bonus content. The bonus content is pretty good with a look at the cars from the film, a quick look at driving for the film with Vin Diesel and more.
The bonus content is a mix of high definition and standard definition video and audio for the usual mix that is pretty good but that could not save the film overall. Fast & Furious just did not add up to be a good movie and even bringing the original actors back did not add to the films general appeal and they just did not do their best.
Fast & Furious on Blu-ray is quit a mixed bag with a poor story some below average acting and a just plain overall badly made film that is hard to recommend even as a rental.