The Fast and the Furious (Mini Review Series)

Initial release date: June 22, 2001

Tagline: If you have what it takes … You can have it ALL!

Plot: Dom Toretto enjoys the adrenaline of street car racing and his fans treat him like a rock star. After a blazing encounter with the ruthless Johnny Tran, Dom decides to take Brian, a newcomer to street racing, under his wing. Trouble is, Dom doesn’t realize Brian’s an undercover cop, and Dom and his rival Johnny Tran are both the prime suspects in a case involving dirty money and big-rig hijacking.

Cast

Paul Walker (Furious 7) - Brian O’Conner

Vin Diesel (Bloodshot) - Dominic Toretto

Michelle Rodgriguez (Widows) - Letty

Jordana Brewster (Furious 7) - Mia

Rick Yune (Alita: Battle Angel) - Johnny Tran

Chad Lindberg (Four Good Days) - Jesse

Johnny Strong - Leon

Matt Schulze (Action Point) - Vince

Ted Levine (ABCs Big Sky) - Sgt. Tanner

Ja Rule - Edwin

Vyto Ruginis (NCIS: Los Angeles) - Harry

Thom Barry (Texas Chainsaw) - Agent Bilkins

Noel Gugliemi (The Tax Collector) - Hector

Writer(s): Gary Scott Thompson (88 Minutes)

Erick Bergquist

David Ayer (The Tax Collector: Suicide Squad)

Ken Li (magazine article ‘Racer X’)

Director: Rob Cohen (The Hurricane Heist)

Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual content and language (106 min)

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the first ‘Fast and the Furious’ movie and the Dietrich has the latest entry ‘F9: The Fast Saga’ booked for opening weekend! With the booking of the latest in the ever-growing franchise, I will be taking another look at the ‘Fast and Franchise’ - minus the ‘Hobbs and Shaw’ spin-off - starting, of course, with the 2001 movie ‘The Fast and the Furious.’

The 2001 action/street-racing flick ‘The Fast and the Furious’ is definitely one of the better entries of the entire franchise. Before the series ultimately became a huge action-packed heist/spy series, it all started as a typical regular street-racing flick.

The street-racing scenes are very interesting and awesome to watch. This whole entire movie is purely entertaining and it’s hard to believe that this movie was released in theaters two DECADES ago! There are several moments that are adrenaline-pumping and its soundtrack is really awesome and helps get you pumped for most of the scenes.

The first ‘Furious’ movie has quite a few stand out moments scattered throughout. The Race Wars scene towards the middle of the movie is really incredible and street-racing fans will like it. The whole hijacking a truck gone wrong scene that kicks off the third act of the movie is extremely tense!

Even if you’re not a fan of either cars or street racing, ‘The Fast and the Furious’ will still keep you entertained with some of the action that it offers.

Here are some interesting tidbits about ‘The Fast and the Furious’:

• Paul Walker and Matt Schulze carefully choreographed the fight scene outside the grocery store, but when it was time to shoot, it didn’t feel right. In the end, they just improvised.

• Neither Jordana Brewster (Mia) or Michelle Rodriguez (Letty) had a driver’s license or even a learner’s permit before production of the film.

• During the Race Wars, real life drivers brought their cars to participate in the huge scene.

• Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Eminem were all considered for the part of Brian O’Conner before Paul Walker was cast.

• Over 1500 cars were at the Race Wars.

• Working titles for the movie included: ‘Racer X,’ ‘Redline’ and ‘Race Wars.’

• The title rights, not the story rights, to the 1954 movie ‘The Fast and the Furious,’ were purchased so that the title could be used on this project, another film about racing.

• Director Rob Cohen was inspired to make this film after reading a 1998 “Vibe” magazine article called ‘Racer X’ about street racing in NYC and watching an actual illegal street race at night in LA.

• The movie was shot in various locations within LA and parts of southern California from July to October 2000. Key locations included Dodger Stadium (opening scene), Angelino Heights, Silver Lake and Echo Park.

• ‘The Fast and the Furious’ was released on June 22, 2001 in North American and ranked No. 1 at the box office, earning $40.1 million during its opening weekend. During its run, the film has made a domestic total of $144,533,925 along with an international total of $62,750,000 bringing its worldwide total to $207,283,925 on a $38 million budget.