Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The Movie Diorama Fast & Furious 4. Fast & Fourious. 2 Fast 2 4ious: Tokyo Drift. What a way to reboot a franchise, by literally removing the definite article from its title. Someone give that person a medal because sweet lord it didn't work. Dom joins forces with Brian to bring down a drug cartel in Mexico who happened to have been involved with Letty's death. Wait was that a spoiler? No, it's in the trailer, synopsis and every other critic review, plus everyone has essentially tackled this eternal soap opera by now. After the "masterpiece" that was 'Tokyo Drift', director Justin Lin takes back the series by ensuring Dom and his crew return for some high octane action. Yes? No. Granted, the car chases were well filmed and are always exhilarating to witness but I expected nothing less. It's the franchise's trademark. Whether it be street racing through night time Los Angeles or rampaging through urban Mexico, always thrilling when it's also accompanied by pounding techno beats. It gets my blood flowing. Unfortunately though, that's all this chapter has going for it. These returning characters are portrayed with such monotony and dullness that actually I didn't care for any of them. Diesel can grumble all he wants in a bid to enhance the physicality of Dom, yet he is a boring protagonist. Brian acts as his lap dog and, again, is boring. The antagonist was generic, same can be said about the plot which was ever so reminiscent to 'Point Break'. The acting was functional although Brewster, bless her for having her name on the front cover, was useless at conveying any emotion. The extent of her emotive acting is a smile at the end. Nice! The atrocious visual effects detracted from many of the action scenes, particularly the Mexican border tunnel chase. It resembled something you would find in a PlayStation game, y'know those polygonal cutscenes. It's neither fast or furious, it's just really really dull. Fortunately the franchise picks up substantially in future sequels!

Mark The one-two punch of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker return to the streets of Los Angeles in the sequel that essentially turns '2 Fast 2 Furious' and 'Tokyo Drift' into side stories or spin offs. After Vin Diesel left the series, no one expected him to ever return. Then he did... at the end of 'Tokyo Drift'. The movie itself isn't as good as 'Fast Five', 'Fast & Furious 6', 'Furious 7' or 'The Fate of the Furious' but it's the movie that set the plot in motion for the installments to come. Michelle Rodriquez's character begins a tremendous story arc from being presumed dead, to deemed still alive, to losing her memory, etc. Paul Walker's Brian is left to repair the damage with Dom and Mia from 'The Fast and the Furious' from 2001, where they learned he was an LAPD cop working undercover for the FBI. Tensions between Dom and Brian are high when Dom learns Brian was working with Letty to go undercover. Dom later learns Letty was doing it in exchange for Dom's freedom. The movie features in my opinion the greatest street race of any of the 8 movies. The Los Angeles 4 car race to see who will drive for Braga is incredibly well done. It's also the rematch between Dom and Brian from the original's drag race.

ryanskywalker-87402 The longer a franchise goes on, the more likely it seems to fall into one of two patterns. Lucky series continue to build on the strengths of their predecessors, adding to the good and removing the bad for an increasingly good experience. Unlucky series find something that works early on and stagnate, refusing to innovate for fear of losing their magic. Somehow, with Fast and Furious, the FF series straddles both of these patterns at the same time. Series' mainstay Brian O'Conner is back and is now a federal agent working to break up a cartel run smuggling ring in Los Angeles. However, when the same cartel kills Dominic Toretto's girlfriend Letty, Dom returns to his home turf and two reluctantly team-up to take down the bad guys.If that plot sounds familiar, there is a good reason, it is literally the plot of the first two movies sewn together. From the first you have Brian working undercover alongside Dom, the LA setting and the street races. From the second you have the bitter rivals forced to team up to bust up a drug operation. Despite the fact the the story takes zero steps forward narratively, the whole thing actually works. This is mostly because the series is starting to mature. Sure, the camera still clings to the rear-ends of half- naked women with a pubescent glee, but the dialogue is far superior to anything in the series so far, there is real character growth and the dramatic moments work more often then they don't. If you need an example, just take the scene in which Dom describes Letty to an interested cartel enforcer named Gisele, the scene is almost heart- breaking and is miles above anything found in the first three films.To match the stronger writing, the cast bring a better game as well. Paul Walker really hits his stride here, trading in his poor faux machismo for a more reserved, thinking attitude, giving room for Vin Diesel to handle the tough guy stuff. Both actors work great together and manage to sell the improved dialogue well. The action scenes still aren't amazing, but returning director Justin Lin steps his game up from Tokyo Drift and keeps things entertaining throughout, though the CGI has already started to age a few years out. The soundtrack is even a little better, still filled with loud and angry rap and rock, but better, less obnoxious song choices then entries past. The only thing not improved in the slightest is the villain, who is just another one-dimensional drug kingpin, seemingly the archenemies of good, honest street racers the world over. Fast and Furious may have lost the "the"s from the title, but is has gained some quality to its filmmaking and for the first time I can see why this series was able to become a tent-pole franchise. Here's hoping that as the next entry sheds more words from its title, it gains even more high caliber filmmaking.

joshuadrake-91275 After The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, a sequel with Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster returning was put into production and would not be released until April of 2009.The story sees Dom and his new crew hijacking fuel tankers in the Dominican Republic, but he believes that the police is high on their trail. Meanwhile, Letty is killed in a car accident and this leads into Dominic and Brian coming together once again to find her killer and make him pay.I'm not gonna say this movie was bad, but I kinda hate and love this movie at the same time. What made the action work previously is the car chases and underground racing, but that is still present here, so I can't blame this movie for not having car chases.The over-the-top action is just lazy, except for the climactic car chase at the end of the film and the chase between Brian O'Conner and a criminal at the beginning of the film in Los Angeles. I saw previews of this movie online and on TV and I had mixed feelings when I watched this for the very first time.The music is just cool. I give Brian Tyler a lot of credit, but I don't want to talk about the entire musical score for the film.The acting is kind of a mixed bag of popcorn and gummy worms for me because some of the actors do their job and some of them does not.I give credit to the four main actors who play the four main characters even though Michelle Rodriguez does not have a lot of screen time, she does a very good job. The film saw the return of Sung Kang as Han Seoul-Oh and to tell you the truth, he does a great job. Gal Gadot plays Gisele Yashar and she is a new introduction to the film series, but unfortunately, she does not have a lot of screen time either, but does really good.The villains played by Laz Alonso and John Ortiz are okay, but Laz Alonso was miscast in this film. Nothing against him, but I like him in Stomp the Yard and Jumping the Broom, but this is the only film that I think he did not work. John Ortiz plays Braga in this film and he gives a good decent performance, but even then, it's incredibly over the top.So, overall, I have mixed feelings about Fast and Furious 4, while I like the music, story, action and some of the acting, I can't get over the fact that the Letty Ortiz character was killed off. I give it a 5 out of 10, because they tried their best and I don't think it's as bad as people say it is.Now, if the movie would have been 124 minutes long, it would have been fine.