“I live my life a quarter mile at a time”

The Scoop: 2001 PG-13, directed by Rob Cohen and starring Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster

Tagline: Live life 1/4 mile at a time

Summary Capsule: Fast cars, good-looking people and a floss thin plot: It’s a HIT!

Clare’s rating: vroom vroom indeed.

Clare’s review: Basically The Fast and the Furious is a porno movie that replaces sex scenes with fast cars doing stunts. I’m not sure I can come up with a definite reason why that might be either good or bad. It just is what it is.

The acting is terrible, the plot barely exists and the dialogue borders on hilarious it’s so crappy. But there is a seriously bad ass soundtrack pumping pretty much non-stop throughout the entire thing, there are some respectably phenomenal stunts to behold and there’s a non-stop barrage of half-way-decent looking guys and gals running around in tight shirts. So really, what it lacks in say, value or artistic credibility it more than makes up for in volume and non-stop action.

And while I’d like to grace you with a well spoken diatribe about why it sucks that movies as bad as this one are able to gross over 100 million dollars and garner themselves automatic sequels while much more deserving films that are actually going to be remembered in 20 years still struggle for distribution, the reality of the situation is that this is exactly the kind of dumb, loud, sexy, fast ride that movie goers drool over when looking for something to distract them from the boredom of their everyday lives. So whatever. It didn’t offend me but I don’t know that I’d ever want to watch it again. How’s that for a stellar endorsement?

Intermission!

• This movie is loosely based upon an article in Vibe magazine by Ken Li about gangs that adapt Japanese cars like the Honda Civic into muscle cars for racing. There have been a few other films with the same title, including a 1954 Roger Corman “car chase” movie.
• Director Ron Cohen is the old pizza delivery man who is blocked by the first race.
• The movie that Dom’s gang is watching after the BBQ is Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, also directed by Rob Cohen.
• Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits? Possibly – on some prints, after the credits, there is a brief epilog showing Dominic’s fate. He is shown, driving alone in a red Chevelle with black racing stripes, on a desolate road by the coast in Baja, Mexico. He narrates about his life (“I live my life a quarter mile at a time …”).

Groovy Quotes

Dom: I live my life a quarter mile at a time, nothing else matters, for those ten seconds or less, I’m free.

Dom: You break her heart and I’ll break your neck.
Brian: It’ll never happen.

Dom: I said a 10 second car, not a 10 minute car.

Hector: The name’s Hector. Got a last name too, but I can’t pronounce it.

If you liked this movie, try these:

• The sequels
• Top Gun
• Days Of Thunder
• Rollerball