Movie Review - Fast and Furious 4 (2009)

New Model. Original Parts.

The tag line could not be more true for this movie! As big a hit the 1st one was, the 2nd and 3rd parts of this franchise failed to create equally big ripples due to the absence of Vin Diesel!

The poor performance of duex and trois meant that Vin is back for the 4th one! After all, the original is the original

<-- Diesel power Baby! (the BDS does not stand for BAD ASS.. lol)

Fast and Furious 4 completely ignores part 2 and 3. The story picks up from where part 1 left off... (FBI mole Paul Walker, allows Vin to run away). Hiding from the cops, Vin is running his operations in Dominican Republic (Again, an apt place coz Vin's name in the movie is "Dominic".. lolz)

The plot of this movie has gangsters, drugs, cops, chicks and the Cars! The original team of Paul Walker (FBI agent), Diesel (Dominic Torreto), Jordana Brewster (Vin's sister and Paul's GF), Michelle Roderiguez (Vin's GF) are back for this rocking movie! Vin still drives Muscle cars and Walker sticks to driving Imports! The chicks are good eye-candy and they even get behind the wheel once in a while. The best of them is Michelle, coz shes the only one who gets dirty under the hood and also handles herself quite well everywhere else - on top of the car and even on the backside of a truck!

While the plot is quite interesting, it is the car chases that kinda get a bit repetitive! (Yep, I said it!) The best thing about the 1st movie was the exotic car racing that was shown on the screen. When it comes down to that, part 1 certainly comes out on tops among ALL 4 movies. The car sequences in 4 would have worked has the movie come out at the time part-2 was released. The main car chase sequence in part 4 feels very "game-like" and it had a Tokyo-drift-like feel to it (remember the race on the mountain?) This is where the story comes in handy and prevents the movie from being termed as a dud!

The plot, combined with the chemistry, that's carried forward from the original, between Walker, Vin and Jordana is what held my interest in the movie.

<--- (Lock it load it and pop it! Thats done right... FnF style!)

For me, the initial adrenaline rush was over after the first 2 car race sequences and the rest of the sequences had a "game like" feel to them - bad lighting, too much dust n dirt being kicked up (to give them the benefit, the sequence was pictured in a desert), but still... It didn't do it for me.

Perhaps its because between part 1 and part 4, I have watched other movies that have come out with better car sequences! (Death Proof - top 10 best car chases ever! Chicks doing the chasing further adds to the appeal.)... Or perhaps I was tired from a long night and the darkness of the theater was too tempting for my body to resist!

All being said, It was a good movie. Certainly worth a watch, but not worth canceling dinner plans with your date. Thankfully, the friend I went with preferred this movie over a mundane dinner... just one reason why we get along just fine... lol

Rating -

2.5/5 for plain movie goers

3/5 for people who like movies that give them an adrenaline rush!

3.5/5 for fans of the franchise

***********WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD***********

I loved the 1st sequence the most! Vin and Michelle are robbing an oil truck-train. The sequence was picturised in daylight, so the viewer can see the scene a little more clearly and its easy to follow the fast action on screen.

The street race was good and exciting, but the GPS voice was VERY annoying! I get enough of that in real life... movies are suppose to allow me to escape from that!

The tunnel sequence was the most bizarre of the 3 main race sequences. It gave the mountain race sequence of Tokyo Drift a run for its money for being fake! I felt it was included purely for the sake of a movie based video game that might come out in future.

Loved the exchange between Gisele (Gal Gadot) and Vin when she tries to hit on him and he shuns her. The lines might be cheesy, but appear to be tailor made for Vin's delivery... And he delivers them just right.

Vin's car totally rocked! Paul's car sucked towards the end of the movie.... Black and White...? Seriously?? Did the designers run outta ideas or was it the budget? I bet on the latter with the economy tanking .. lol