Culture

The Phenomenon Known as Fast & Furious

by Manny Castro | April 4, 2009 at 10:14 pm

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Fast & Furious is expected to have an opening anywhere between $60-70 million. Why? That's a good question. Wasn't it always common knowledge that these movies were...bad? Why all the excitement? Perhaps the movie is good. I'm an open-minded person. So, I decided to check it out.

When I arrived at the theater it was shocking to see a line the size of those usually associated with big summer movies like Spider-Man, Batman, and Star Wars. Had I known this I would have shown up a little earlier. So, to the back I headed. The crowd was mostly young. There was a lot of high school students and a few college ones here and there. It seemed like a date movie. Usually there's a good combination of people on dates and people just hanging out with their friends. About 95% of people were on a date.

The movie itself begins with a crowd-pleasing car chase. Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez are stealing a gas truck in the Dominican Republic. Aside from being a crook, Diesel's character is also in hiding from the FBI. However, everyday he hears news that they may be closing in on him. Rodriguez's character isn't on the run, but he knows that she'll go down with him once he gets caught. So, he leaves her. She isn't happy about that and returns to L.A. to seek out Paul Walker's character. Walker is in the middle of investigating a big time drug dealer. Rodriguez says she'll help if they drop the charges on Diesel. He says yes and she goes undercover. Unforunately, she's murdered. Upon hearing the news, Diesel returns and seeks revenge on the drug dealers.

That's pretty much the plot. It's nothing special. And, there's only three car chase/action scenes that stand out. So, why all the buzz? I guess high school kids like these type of movies. They definitely seemed to enjoy it.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this stuff out, but it doesn't hurt to be curious. Correction: It does hurt...in your wallet.

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jordan

flagged this story as Eyewitness Report

at 07:18 on April 5th, 2009

Thanks for braving the queues, Manny. while the initial trailer was awesome, and I'm a fan of big, dumb action flicks, the additional trailers for this one haven't quite grabbed me.