The Fast and The Furious

Well, I thought it was about time I went back to the beginning, back to 2001, and finally figured out what started this whole phenomena.

I said this in my Furious 7 review, but I've never seen these films. Sure I've seen clips here and there and its been on FX every once in a while, but I never really was that interested in the film. While racing cars can be cool, I just never understood how you can make an entire movie out of it.

The thing that should be mentioned about this film is that the franchise has changed drastically since 2001. Honestly, if it weren't for the name and the same characters, this would be a totally different movie. That being said, seeing the start of the franchise now along with the end of the franchise, I now know where it started and where it ended. I'm still trying to piece together the evolution of these characters and maybe that's a post for another time.

The Fast and The Furious started in a very different way as the story was more focused on Paul Walker's character Brian O'Conner, rather than Vin Diesel's character, Dominic Toretto.

O'Conner is a police officer sent undercover to investigate a series of semi robberies going on in the Los Angeles area. His investigations have pointed towards a culture of street racing and someone in this world is the culprits of these heists.

O'Conner implants himself in the life of Dominic Toretto, the leader of a small street racing. Toretto's gang is at odds with an Asian racing gang, led by Johnny Tran (played by Ricky Yune) and they serve as the main "antagonist" for the entire film.

What is interesting about this film is that while Tran is the bad guy of the film, the plot centers more on O'Conner and his integration into Toretto's life, including the courting of his sister Mia (played by Jordana Brewster). Throughout the film, O'Conner needs to question whether or not he's tracking down the right culprits and if it turns out to be the people he begins to care for, is he willing to take them down.

Like I said before, the story is actually centered on O'Conner rather than Toretto.

In this film, Toretto is viewed more as the gangland Godfather, the leader of this group. And while his big thing in this film is that he would rather die before going back to prison, there is the inclining of what the franchise would eventually be about and that is family.

O'Conner is really brought into this little family and of course it sets up a pretty predictable story, of course Dom, Mia, everyone else is going to figure out that O'Conner is a cop, and of course that is going to be problematic. However, Dom isn't necessarily "the bad guy" either. He's a little bit more villain-y than he is in the 7th film, but again it really just shows how much this franchise has changed.

The Fast and The Furious is less of an over the top action flick and more of a crime, almost gangster, thriller. And while the movie is definitely not up to the standards of great gangster films like The Departed, there are signs that this franchise could have gone in a definitely different direction.

Believe it or not, while the racing is a big part of the storyline, a lot of the good parts of this film is the crime family that is built by Toretto. It was more the rivalries and heists in the film that I liked more than the racing or the action.

And the truth is, for the time, the visuals for this film were not that great. They tried to do this weird visual thing when they were racing, at least with the first race between Dom and Brian and it just looked silly. I think that's the point that always lost it for me.

But if you keep on watching the film, I believe the stunts get a little bit more realistic, they get a little more fun, and the it really adds to the story.

Is it the best acted more in the world? Well no. You've seen movies with Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, they're not your A-list actors. But honestly, I thought they were alright in this film. Nothing spectacular, but I don't think they necessarily had to be.

While I wouldn't put The Fast and The Furious down as an incredibly great crime thriller, I would say given the right direction and possibly making the script a little better, this possibly could have turned into a street racing Heat. That was the vibe I got from the entire film, although not as good, and I liked it a lot. It definitely got my intrigued by the second one and if I get some time this week I might pop that one in and see the next step in this transformation from The Fast and The Furious to Furious 7.

But what did you think of The Fast and The Furious? Comment and Discuss below! Also shoot me a tweet on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and follow me to get updates on new movie news and reviews.

I'll leave you with this. Here's a video pointing out every flaw with this movie... just because. Enjoy!