Now let's turn our eyes to the surprisingly gentle and mild mannered world of Los Angeles illegal street racing. 2001's The Fast and the Furious tells the story of a handsome young cop with a perpetually vacant expression who makes friends with the big, warm-hearted leader of a gang of truck thieves and car enthusiasts. If you're looking for a little excitement, this is your movie, but don't expect more than a little. You may also enjoy random, PG-13 shots of scantily clad women and true friendship.
These films are popular in Japan, where they're known as "Wild Speed", so I thought I should finally check them out. Ironically, there's very little of what I would call "wild speed" in the film--camera trickery never quite convinces the eye that these cars are moving faster than 35mph.
I was continually reminded of Quentin Tarantino throwing shade at these movies when he made Death Proof, a far less successful film that nonetheless has far better car chases and stunts. But The Fast and the Furious isn't really about the cars and the action. It's about the cop, Brian (Paul Walker), slowly realising his true friends are among the gang he's gone undercover to infiltrate.
After fighting with one member of the gang, Brian manages to get a chance to race with them. In all the times I've been to L.A., I've never seen the streets so magically empty as they seem to be in this movie. It's as though the city exists only to furnish the needs of the street racers. There's no shots of neighbourhood residents looking annoyed. None of the traffic seems to mind being rerouting by a bunch of mild mannered thugs.
Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto gives one of the film's two good performances, the other good performance being that of Michelle Rodriguez as Dominic's girlfriend, Letty, though her part is really very small. Diesel exudes real warmth and vulnerability so his simplistic character, the misunderstood good guy, is genuinely sweet.
Paul Walker, meanwhile, couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. He should've let his stunt double with the receding hairline do all the work.
But I was happy to see Brian and Don could be buddies. Friendship is nice.
Twitter Sonnet #1410
A raspy voice consoles the calloused knee.
The rubber train rebounds from wooden tracks.
There's something fearsome busy top the tree.
A thousand fronts would sport as many backs.
A metal roof dissolved to leafy film.
A set of trees emerged to shade the road.
A squad of racing eggs will crack the helm.
A rain of paper ash will stop the toad.
The toes return the extra feet for heels.
The extra inch revealed a mile quest.
At hand's a couple yards of cheaper meals.
The space was there before the matter's best.
A skin of paper clothed the boiled beet.
A gentle waves of cars absolved the street.
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