Great film for what it was

Rating: 10/10 (24 September 2001)

Sometimes I'm constantly amazed to read reviews by people who have so obviously gone to a movie they either didn't want to watch or knew wouldn't really interest them. To these people, I say give your money to charity or something, I've never understood those people who have so little to do in their life that they go and see every movie ever made then complain about 90% of them. Life is like that, I happen to think Star Wars sucks, so when a new Star Wars movie comes out, you know what?! I DON'T go and see it!
TF&TF is like this. For those who enjoy cars...no let me rephrase that, for those who love cars, this is a great film. It really makes "Gone in 60 seconds" look like an excuse of a car film - they raid a Ferrari garage and we see about 5 seconds of actual DRIVING? WHAT WERE THEY THINKING! Not so in The Fast and The Furious, thankfully. The riced out cars may not be to everyone's tastes, but owning a powerful turbo vehicle myself, they actually captured my imagination with the audio - the vehicles sounded immaculate with audible induction noise, blow off valves and sweet exhaust notes throughout the movie. The black muscle-car near the end of the movie absolutely thundered in Dolby delight in my cinema, and was awe inspiring. With a decent home theatre setup at home, not much impresses me these days but I was blown away by the audio at most times in this film. It reminded me why I still bother going to the cinema.
Visually the movie was fine, the stunts were well executed and the camera angles engaging. You don't go to an action movie to see involving dialog, you go to remove yourself from reality and have a damn good time doing it, and I felt TF&TF did this well. The fact it was about a subject close to my heart (cars) just added to my personal like for the film. My wife, who dislikes a lot of films I enjoy, also loved the film - which surprised me seeing it was so obviously a male oriented film.
Yes the plot was a bit weak, the dialog a bit shabby at times, and the acting a bit forced. The corny "I live my life a quarter mile at a time" was almost laughable, but taken in context was bearable. But at the end of the day, this was a fantastic movie for car freaks - the same crowd who will spend $50 on specialised videos JUST about cars, with no plot, no Dolby surround, no multi-million dollar budget. If you take this movie for what it is, a fast action romp around the car racing scene, then it does its job admirably IMHO. I think those thoughts are backed up by the huge haul it has done at the box office, and I'm even thinking of seeing it again, something I've not done since I was a stupid teenager :)
Go see it, and grab it on DVD - I know I will.