5. Fast & Furious

Release Date: April 3, 2009
Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Gal Gadot, Sun Kang, Shea Whigham
Directed By: Justin Lin (Fast & Furious 3-6)

Truth be told, the only reason Fast & Furious isn’t at the bottom is that it reunites the core cast from the first film and it’s about more than a disposable villain. It’s about revenge.

MORE SPOILERS Killing Michelle Rodriguez’s Letty is both one of the best and worst decisions the franchise ever made. On one hand, her death justifies reuniting Brian (Walker), Dom and Mia (Jordana Brewster) and essentially drives the plot for this and the sixth film. On the other, Letty was really the only female character of substance in this franchise (Brewster has always struggled to make an impression outside of being the object of Brian’s affection) and the movies feel lacking without her. Gal Gadot’s Gisele eventually became more substantial a few movies down the line, but she’s a weak replacement for Letty here as a pretty face for Dom to ignore. Dom’s guilt and anger over Letty’s death propels the narrative and Diesel does well with barely contained rage and physical violence, but the movie is–overall–a pretty dour affair.

Good action sequences would at least help brighten the mood, but outside of an opening heist that’s just a slicker version of what we saw in the first film, everything else is memorable for the wrong reasons. The biggest action sequences literally involve the heroes driving across the U.S.-Mexican border through drug transport tunnels dug through the base of a mountain. Strong a director as Lin is, there’s only so many things you can do with a camera in a tunnel and the scenes are so CGI heavy that they look like the Mine Cart Carnage level in Donkey Kong. It’s a silly movie in a franchise full of loud, fast, beautiful nonsense. But at least some race skank doesn’t use her bra as a starting flag.

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