Quick Shots - 14/May/2015

Binge Watching Galore

I had a stretch where I binge-watched the Fast & Furious movies. I figured there was so much ballyhoo over the new one and the tragic death of Paul Walker and if a movie series gets out to 7 films, then there must be something of some value there. This is the kind of thinking that gets you into trouble.

The Fast And The Furious

This is the first in the series that kicked it off. I don't even remember this being a big hit, and Vin Diesel was playing its antagonist who wasn't quite the villain. It's a terrible film-film.  There's hardly a story worth spit, the characterisation is thin an arbitrary and just enough to string together the car racing sequences which make uptake glory of this series. "Hit the nitro! Now!" - that sort of mentation predominates and there's nothing really profound or interesting except how Paul Walker's character Brian lets Vin Diesel's character Dom escape at the end. Amazingly, it's this moral ambiguity of the main character that actually allows the sequels to flourish - but it never seems to seriously get any probing or questioning that one would expect if there was any sense of realism about.

It also has to be said Walker is baby faced in this film and sort of quaint. He is also an inexperienced, terrible actor in this film. The blessing is that he does get better.

2 Fast, 2 Furious

This sequel is a caper movie set in Miami. The plot is barely more coherent than the first film. In fact, it is a rare sequel that is better than the original, and this one is such rare film. Indeed, the whole series is surprising this way. Considering how awful the first film is, the sequels just keep getting incrementally better. The bad guys are meaner and genuinely villainous in this instalment. It's not quite interesting so much as time-filling for the tired-brain. It has abuts much intellectual heft as a 70s cop drama, but the car action is good as the first and the film blunders its way through an almost coherent story about being undercover law enforcement - something the first film failed to accomplish.

Fast & Furious Tokyo Drift

And this little piggie went to a script-writer and got itself a story. This one has no Paul Walker, is set in Tokyo, and barely has a cameo from Vin Diesel who was obviously not in the second movie but got brought back for kicks. Instead, they cast another actor to play the lead, Bama Boy. Bama Boy ends up in Japan with his Navy dad, and this being a car racing kind of movie, has to learn how to drive in this funky slide-y way that they drive down steep mountainside chicanes in Japan. Then he runs into the Yakuza and the climax is a big car race down the steep mountainside chicane-infested track.

I understand lots of people think this is the worst of the series but it's not true. The car action is extraordinary, and the acting is very solid for a change. The characters have motivations that make sense, and the story has more than a passing relation to all the car racing sequences. Again, it is a better film-film than the predecessor. I can see why people don't like it - it doesn't have its usual star attractions without Paul Walker - but it has an actual actor who can act. In fact it has a lot going for it compared to the earlier iterations - namely, character and plot.

Fast And Furious

Confusingly titled, this is the fourth film. Paul Walker is back, and so is Vin Diesel. I'd like to crack a joke and say, "so are the skimpy plots" but it's not true. This time the characters of Brian and Dom have a more complex motivation for what they are trying to do. The stunts are more extraordinary than the last films. It's perhaps not as interesting as your average Bond movie or Marvel's Avengers movie, but you start getting into the brain-space of these characters and come to appreciate them for the testosterone-filled grease-monkeys that they are. At this point in time, anything that makes sense is welcome. Michelle Rodriguez also is back, but then she promptly dies off screen, which sets up a revenge plot, which, while it isn't exactly 'Hamlet', gets it over the line. .

And it is yet again a much better overall work of cinema than the previous four.

Fast & Furious 5

And this is as far as I got before I lost internet and phone line.
It's even more outrageous in its stunts and action than any of the previous entires. The writers have strategically moved from Paul Walker being the main hero, to Vin Diesel's Dom being the main character whereby Paul Walker's Brian is relegated to a mirthful second banana and it works better this way. Brian, is deeply shallow; there's really not much to go on there. Dom, on the other hand, is profoundly violent, so there is more gravitas to be mined. Plus we welcome Dwayne Johnson to the ensemble, and he is a big lump of ham on the side.

Looking back thus far, the amazing thing is how they've improved so much on such a flimsy first film. It's the opposite of most franchises where they start with a bang and the sequels get worse and worse, the bloat killing off the excitement and the stories receding into sentimental guff. This series starts of with the bloat and guff but pares it away with each film. It's quite remarkable.

At some point I'll get to 6 and then 7, but I thought I'd report back from the trenches of popcorn movies with something worth sharing.