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| IDRC Movie Review: The Fast & The Furious |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE *** 06-24-01
Universal, 101 minutes, PG-13
Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 4 stars
The Fast & The Furious Gets The Holeshot in The Box Office Race
It topped the box office this weekend, pulling in $41.6 million, nearly
twice as much as the closest competitor (Dr. Dolittle 2). From a
financial
standpoint, The Fast & The Furious (F&F) film is on course to turn a
healthy
profit, thanks, in part, to the lack of big-name, high-dollar talent in
the
cast.
Does The Fast & The Furious Have the Horsepower to Stay in Front?
The promotion for this movie was extensive and well-targeted.
Billboards,
buses and theaters have been blanketed with teasers to get the
enthusiasts
to the theaters. Judging by the opening which had many showings SOLD
OUT,
the promotion department of Universal did its job well.
Now the question becomes, does The Fast & the Furious feature have the
entertainment value necessary to keep the flick on the top. Last week,
Laura
Croft: Tomb Raider opened strong in 600 more theaters (3312 vs. 2618)
than
The Fast & The Furious. Now, this once hot commodity is down to the
number
three position in the box office race.
The plot is directly borrowed from Point Break, with subtle
differences. To
recap, an undercover cop infiltrates a sub-culture and becomes part of
the
culture. This cop is then faced with the challenge of choosing between
his
civic duty or his new family. This time the sub-culture is the import
and
sport compact community, instead of the surf scene. Multiple critics
have
complained about the lack of originality in the plot. Our feeling, you
don't
need a unique plot to have a good movie, but it does help. We're always
down
to watch a Kung-Fu flick even though we already know the plot. Bad guy
kills
teacher or brother; hero pledges revenge; hero meets new master and
trains
to develop skills that will enable him to defeat foe, many people spit
blood...that's entertainment.
The cast, for the most part, gives satisfactory performances. Paul
Walker
plays the lead "white boy" that shows up at the street races, as the
guy
with more money than brains. His performance is believable (take from
that
what you want). Vin Diesel plays the leader of the "ethnic-neutral"
crew.
The Asian, Hispanic and Black crews were stereotyped to the max, but
Vin's
crew consists of a white-trash bully; an ADD-affected white guy, along
with
the ethnic-neutral Vin, sister and girlfriend. As for the ladies, the
casting director picked a tough-look over beauty.
How Real is This Deal?
If you had high hopes that The Fast & The Furious would provide the
world an
accurate view of today's sport compact and import street racing scene
or
subculture, then you better wait for Hollywood's next attempt. This
first
attempt delivers hordes of show cars worked over with Hollywood magic
to
appear to be racing at high speeds. During the racing, the car sounds
get
mixed around when Civics sound like rotaries and Eclipses. What else is
wrong? The use of CASH in the film. I guess Universal didn't research
the
fact that Visa, MasterCard and American Express credit lines build
99-percent of the rides. The car graphics are just way off base...it
looked
like Ultraman designers were let loose in a vinyl factory. As for
realism, a
four-car drag race---give me a break. Street racing is not the smartest
or
safest vice, but you'd have to be brain-dead to race four across.
See or Wait For The Rental? See it, Everyone's Doing It!
Do you even need to ask this question? Don't you want Hollywood to keep
making movies about us until they finally get it right? If we don't
show up
to this movie and make it a box-office success, it will be the last
movie
about our culture. Trust me, this movie is far from accurate and we
can't
have this be the only way the mainstream views our movement. So go see
it
and invest $8.50 into the future of our movement. Perhaps it will
prompt
Hollywood to seek out the right people to make an accurate,
entertaining and
realistic movie about our industry.
For more information, contact IDRC at:
IDRC, Inc.
21405 Brookhurst Street
Huntington Beach, CA 92646
(714) 593-0280 / (714) 593-0281 fax
info@importdrag.com
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