Fast and Furious (aka Fast and Furious 4) (Mini Review Series)

Initial release date: April 3, 2009

Studios: Universal Pictures/Original Films

Tagline: New Model. Original Parts

Plot: Heading back to the streets where it all began. When a crime brings them back to LA, fugitive ex-con Dom Toretto reignites his feud with Brian O’Conner. But as they are forced to confront a shared enemy, Dom and Brian must give in to an uncertain new trust if they hope to outmaneuver him. And from convoy heists to precision tunnel crawls across international lines, two men will find the best way to get revenge: push the limits of what’s possible behind the wheel.

Cast

Vin Diesel (F9: The Fast Saga) - Dom Toretto

Paul Walker (Furious 7) - Brian O’ Conner

Jordana Brewster (F9: The Fast Saga; Fox’s recently cancelled Lethal Weapon) - Mia

Michelle Rodriguez (F9; Widows) - Letty

John Ortiz (Ad Astra; Bumblebee) - Campos

Laz Alonso (Amazon Prime’s The Boys) - Felix

Gal Gadot (Zack Snyder’s Justice League; Wonder Woman 1984) - Gisele

Jack Conley (Suburbicon; The Purge: Anarchy) - Penning

Shea Whigham (F9; Netflix’s Vampires vs. the Bronx) - Stasiak

Liza Lapira (CBS’ The Equalizer) - Trinh

Sung Kang (F9) - Han

Tego Calderon (Fate of the Furious) - Tego

Don Omar (F9) - Santos

Writer: Chris Morgan

Director: Justin Lin

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sexual content, language and drug references (107 min)

‘Fast & Furious’ brings back series leads the late Paul Walker and Vin Diesel to the franchise. The opening sequence that features Dom and a few other characters doing a little heist that involves a fuel truck in the Dominican Republic is pretty awesome and a great explosive way to start the movie.

This 2009 sequel goes back to the basics in the street-racing world - with a max of dealing with a notorious and dangerous drug dealer and solving a murder. Even though the critical reception to this movie was really mixed, it’s actually quite thrilling and action-packed.

One thing that they should have changed was the movie’s title. I’m sure they could have come up with something better than ‘Fast & Furious’ since it almost resembles the first movie’s title. Which I think they did on purpose since it’s the first time since the first movie that the Brian and Dom characters were together.

Overall, the fourth entry of the franchise is definitely one of the top movies in the series. The action is really tense. The car chases are unbelievably entertaining and the ending is a great lead way into the fifth entry.

Here are some interesting tidbits about ‘Fast & Furious’:

• Due to Universal moving the release date up from June 12 to April 3, composer Brian Tyler only had three days to record the orchestral score.

• Gal Gadot’s on-screen movie debut.

• It out grossed domestically ‘Tokyo Drift’ in its first weekend alone.

• Vin Diesel originally wanted to make the fourth and fifth movies back to back, but Universal decided to take some time to see how this current movie would work out before moving to a fifth. Diesel was allowed to direct an 18 minute short movie set in the ‘Furious’ world.

• As of June 2021, the DVD/Blu-ray sales have sold 4,616,164 copies generating $77.8 million in sales revenue.

• On its first day of release, the movie grossed $30.6 million, and peaked at the top spot of the weekend box office with $70.9 million. The movie had the sixth biggest opening weekend of 2009 and was double what most industry observers expected.

• The movie ended its theatrical release on July 2, 2009 with a gross of $155,064,265 in the US and Canada and $205,300,000 internationally for a worldwide total of $360,364,265.