The Fast and the Furious (2001): Review

After my slight disappointment with Fast & Furious 6 due to the focus not being completely on the cars and races.  I don't care Fast & Furious should not have significant focus on hand to hand fighting between the main characters.  I decided to go back and relieve my joy of the Fast and Furious Franchise with the original The Fast and The Furious (2001) and now that I think about it, this was probably the start of my love of the action movies.  This movie came out in 2001 when I was sixteen year old girl and I remember really liking all the excitement of this movie and going back to see it.  I owned it on DVD and it was one of the first DVDs I owned and took to college with me. Not to mention I thought Paul Walker and his blue eyes was very attractive.
This review involves a breakdown of the entire plot so that means spoilers, if you care about this don't read it.
The Fast and the Furious stars Paul Walker as Brian Conner as an undercover Cop who is trying to figure out who the crew is that has been robbing truckers with technical merchandise and to do this he works to get into the good graces of Dom Torreto, played by Vin Diesel. While he is doing this he works with a flirtation and attraction to Dom's little sister Mia played by Jordana Brewster.  Also staring Michelle Rodriquez as Dom's girl Letty.  In this movie Brian works to show his driving skills but starts by getting on the wrong side of Dom because he is not from the neighborhood.  Brian of course gets into a drag race with Dom and loses but ends up getting Dom out of a tight spot earning the initial good graces of Dom.  During this time, Brian loses his car and is therefore in Dom's debt because he owes him a "ten second car."  While this is happening Brian is trying to find out who the thieves are and is under pressure from his Sargent and FBI Agent Bilkins.  Brian struggles with admitting that Dom is obviously involved and puts the pressure on rival racer Johnny Tran played by Rick Yune. Brian discovers that Dom is set to do another job and knows that the Truckers are now armed and ready to take out the thieves.  He reveals his undercover Cop status to Mia, who is upset but reluctantly agrees to help because it means keeping her brother safe. At the end of the movie, Brian uses his police status to save one of Dom's crew Vince and then gets in a spot where he races Dom again.  Brain ends up giving Dom his car as he owes him a car and Dom drives off leaving Brain behind.
Like I mentioned earlier as I think about it, this movie is one of the first movies that helped me to discover my love of the action genre.  I like the races and the shininess of all the cars and amped up thrill of the race.  It has a hint of romance, which I almost always enjoy.  This movie is a lot of fluff but I think it is fun and I like that it became a series. 
This was the first time I remember learning about Vin Diesel and following this movie I watched him in other action movies, some crappy but liked him as an action star.  Re-watching this movie, showed me how the actors have aged in the last twelve years but I still buy them as the racers from the street.  Michelle Rodriquez is still a bad actress, but she works as the hard Girl from the neighborhood and how she is Dom's girl.
During the re-viewing of the movie, I realized that the starting of the tight action shots were in this movie, but when it is the tight up of the actors in the cars, which they are not really driving, doesn't bother me as much, but now that it has become one of my pet peeves, I definitely noticed it.
This is still a solid action movie but is nothing that would interest people who have no interest in cars or action movies.  The action in this movie are the races and fancy car work. 

My Rating: 3-

My Nostalgic Rating: 3+
Like I said this I like this movie and the whole Fast and the Furious Franchise.  I think that this is one of the movies, that helped me to realize that a movie doesn't have to be a feat of acting and cinematography for me to enjoy the process.  Sometimes a movie with a little plot and a lot of action is a fun experience.
Also the credits of this movie feature Ja Rule and this totally takes me back to high school.


Hold Up Rating: 3
Overall this movie is focused on the racing and I do not know about the technological advances of racing, but to me it seems to hold up pretty well. There is a shot of an old computer and using a floppy disk, which obviously is outdated, but for right now this isn't too bad.  There is a moment where it is a big deal to trace a cell phone, and this would not be such a big deal now.