Midnight Quills

Does anyone actually go to this movie for the plot and deep storylines?
I didn’t think so.

I certainly didn’t walk in to Fast and Furious expecting deep messages, oscar-winning performances or thought-provoking plot hooks.

This, instalment number four of the Fast and Furious franchise (hey, I can alliterate!) brings everything to the screen that fans of the previous movies want to see. It brings hot cars, hotter babes and high-octane action. What more could you really want?

As a fan of the franchise, going in to watch Fast and Furious is like a reunion. We get to see once again those favourite characters from the first movie. Dominic, Mia and Letty all show back up letting us know what they’re up to five years after they all bolted from LA at the end of the first film.

Let’s be honest with the world, though. This film isn’t about to go out and clean sweep the Oscars. In fact, come award season, it’s probably not even going to be thought about, let alone mentioned. Part of that is that the script is a Fast and Furious script – it’s shallow, unpolished and at times the characters come out with a line that would ordinarily make you groan, it’s that predictable; but that’s what a Fast and Furious script is! Does anyone remember “This ain’t no ten-second race” from Tokyo Drift? It’s what we’ve come to expect from the franchise, and because of that, the lines don’t come off nearly as bad as they would in other films.

Performance-wise, again, it’s Fast and Furious. Walker and Diesel have done what they could with what they were given. When the script only provides an actor with a shallow character, there’s only so much that can be done. They aren’t, though, the stars of the movie and really, they probably never were.

In interviews way back when, throughout the first two Fast and Furious instalments, we heard interviews telling us that the cars were the stars of these films, and that’s once more the case. There’s a reunion felt when we see all the familiar faces, but when you lay eyes on that Charger, it’s like the circle’s complete. Alongside it we see a plethora of new stars, including the latest model STI Impreza from Subaru, which suddenly doesn’t look as ugly!

That’s what we’ve come to see. We haven’t come to watch Fast and Furious for anything deep or profound. We’ve come to see Dom and Brian go head to head again and I can’t help but think that Justin Lin has managed to hit the bullseye of the Fast and Furious target.