Fast & Furious (2009)

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The first must-see film of the year.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

When street-racer Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is murdered by a member of the Braga drug cartel, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) teams up with FBI agent Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) to bring those responsible to justice.Fast & Furious, the inventively titled fourth film in the popular Fast and Furious franchise, delivers more pedal to the metal, full-throttle, high-octane thrills and spills. But where the series was originally little more than 'car-porn' geared towards young petrol-heads and custom car fans, this entry takes a slightly different route, the action more accessible to those who, like me, drive a very sensible family hatchback with zero street cred and nothing under the hood, but who still enjoy slick, undemanding popcorn blockbuster fun.With a plot that offers broader appeal, Vin Diesel back in the driving seat, accompanied by Walker, Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster as his sexy younger sister, and an early role for Gal 'Wonder Woman' Gadot, part four is the most enjoyable Fast & Furious so far.

This review contains spoilers.Fast & Furious or Fast & Furious 4 is the fourth installment to The Fast & Furious franchise. The movie is a sequel to The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift but is more of a direct sequel to 2 Fast 2 Furious. The movie features Paul Walker and Vin Diesel as they reprise their roles of Brian O'Conner and Dominic Toretto respectively. The crew from the first movie confront a drug lord called Braga that wrongs both Dominic and Brian.The plot of this movie is incredibly incomprehensible. Many events in the plot simply happen without any reason or the flimsiest of reasoning. This movie's plot is an excuse to show car chases. The story keeps up the action at the expense of the plot. An example of this is in one car race, Brian is knocked out of the race. He is able to use his FBI connections to re-unite with Dominic Toretto by taking another person's place. The other characters and even the villain simply accept this and allow it to happen.The main story of Letty's murder is not well done. This story feels incredibly flimsy and the audience does not even see the murder happen. It is simply in a flashback scene that is told. I understand that the movie wanted to use this event as the reason for Dominic Toretto's mission but it felt incredibly forced.The finale of the movie improves the rest of the movie. With an explosive finale and the story being wrapped up, the movie concludes in a satisfying way. This movie did set up the rest of the series well and this can be considered this installment's strength. I did look forward to the other future installments because of this movie. The movie ends with the crew assembling and busting Dom out of a prison truck.I do not recommend Fast & Furious. This movie's plot is a jumbled mess. The only redeeming factor for this movie is its place for the rest of the series.

The one-two punch of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker return to the streets of Los Angeles in the sequel that essentially turns '2 Fast 2 Furious' and 'Tokyo Drift' into side stories or spin offs. After Vin Diesel left the series, no one expected him to ever return. Then he did... at the end of 'Tokyo Drift'. The movie itself isn't as good as 'Fast Five', 'Fast & Furious 6', 'Furious 7' or 'The Fate of the Furious' but it's the movie that set the plot in motion for the installments to come. Michelle Rodriquez's character begins a tremendous story arc from being presumed dead, to deemed still alive, to losing her memory, etc. Paul Walker's Brian is left to repair the damage with Dom and Mia from 'The Fast and the Furious' from 2001, where they learned he was an LAPD cop working undercover for the FBI. Tensions between Dom and Brian are high when Dom learns Brian was working with Letty to go undercover. Dom later learns Letty was doing it in exchange for Dom's freedom. The movie features in my opinion the greatest street race of any of the 8 movies. The Los Angeles 4 car race to see who will drive for Braga is incredibly well done. It's also the rematch between Dom and Brian from the original's drag race.

This film tells the story of an FBI agent, who teams up with a notorious criminal, and infiltrate the criminal underworld of underground racing. Their goal is to catch a drug lord and bring him to justice, using whatever means required.I still remember watching the first "The Fast and the Furious", and I was super impressed by the cars and the energy of the film, even though I do not have a passion for cars. Watching the fourth installment is almost like a step back in time because it was still all about the fast cars and the furious drivers. "Fast & Furious" keeps the energy going by a lot of very dangerous car chases. The plot though, is not so clear to me perhaps because I do not quite remember the first three films. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed watching this film.