With the upcoming release of Hobbs and Shaw, the F&F Spinoff, and partially due to quite a bit of recent sick time, I’ve gone back to rewatch and reanalyze my thoughts on the Fast and the Furious Franchise.
In all honesty, the F&F franchise has been a guilty pleasure of mine for a LONG time. I was right in the target demographic when 2 Fast 2 Furious was released and loved every minute of it (Because 13 year old boys have the best taste in everything, amirite?). With that in mind, let’s go through and rank them from worst to first.
8. (Worst) The Fate of the Furious
I’m starting this with a controversial choice. When I walked out of the theater after watching F8, I remember being pleasantly surprised, but upon rewatching, I can’t help but feel that I was very wrong. The entire movie is trying so hard to be emotional and gripping, but comes off as a pretentious, overly complicated mess that is way more invested in the importance of spouting out lame, cheeseball one liners, than anything interesting, logical, or pleasant to look at. Long, bland, and lacking any stand out action or performances, F8 falls last on my list. Also, Scott Eastwood, why are you here?
High point: Dom’s on ice revenge (I guess?)
Low Point: All of Vin Diesels lame one-liners
7. Fast and the Furious 7
Another borderline choice, F7 has never sat well with me. It suffers from a lot of the same issues as F8, but the difference is James Wan knew how to create action scenes and there were quite a few that stood out (Jumping a car between skyscrapers for instance). Unfortunately the new characters aren’t very interesting (Sorry Ramses, no one cares about you) and the movie as a whole, takes its bonkers plot too seriously. Luckily Kurt Russell is able to carry his one dimensional character with charisma, but F7 still ends up low on this list for me (Although it is undoubtably high for most critics and fans of the franchise) Paul Walker deserved a better send off.
High Point: “Cars don’t fly!”/Paul Walker tribute
Low point: Once again, pretty much all of the dialogue from Vin Diesel
6. 2 Fast 2 Furious
(This is probably nostalgia speaking) Although goofy and extremely outdated, 2F2F is still really entertaining. Solid racing and a simplistic story work to the advantage of this one. Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris’ characters add two really fun and standout personalities, while Paul Walker is able to carry on well enough without Vin Diesel. This definitely isn’t a “good” movie, but it’s campiness adds to the entertainment value and is still really fun to watch to this day.
High Point:”Ejecto seato cuz!”
Low Point: Rat bucket torture
5. Fast and Furious
The Fourth installment of the franchise ended up being kind of a middle of the road end product. It has quite a bit of goofiness in its own right, but the missteps were small, and the reunion of Paul Walker and Vin Diesel was long awaited and overdue. This actually serves as a great single sequel to the original, as it ties up lose ends and propels the franchise into a new era, all while serving up some great vehicular action through a serviceable plot.
High Point: Desert chase
Low Point: “Dwight loves feet.”
4. Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Underrated in my opinion, Tokyo Drift tells a solid standalone story removed from the rest of the franchise. Lucas Black and Lil Bow Wow don’t have quite the same charisma as Diesel and Walker, but play off each other well. The addition of the Japanese Drift subculture into a franchise that focused on American Street racing was also very fresh and interesting. Overall, Tokyo Drift is different, but in mostly good ways.
High Point: Monte Carlo v. Viper
Low point: Inexperienced actors
3. Fast and the Furious 6
Full on ridiculousness describes F6 pretty well, but they went all in on it and it is glorious. F6 has the goofiness and over the top action of most of the franchise, but (for the most part) doesn’t have the terrible dialogue of the two most recent entries. Lee Pace is a formidable, charismatic, and imposing antagonist, and F6 boasts some of the most eye popping action sequences of the franchise.
High Point: “Uh, Guys… they got a tank.”
Low Point: Dom’s high speed catch / Never-ending runway
2. The Fast and the Furious
For the record, the original Fast and the Furious is basically a Point Break ripoff, I know this, but it is a great ripoff. Definitely the film in the franchise that focused on cars and racing more than anything, and also took the time to create full characters. The Fast and the Furious is a well grounded (emphasis on this seeing how bonkers the sequels have gotten) action crime drama that showcased street racing in a way that really hadn’t been done before. A solid plot, great action, and well presented drama make this my second favorite in the franchise.
High Point: Charger flip
Low Point: It has aged VERY poorly as a whole. I refuse to admit that that many people wore mesh T-shirts.
1. Fast Five
With what I’m sure is no surprise, Fast Five is my top movie in the Fast and the Furious franchise. F5 is a fantastic heist film, with great action sequences, that serves as a perfect culmination of the films that came before it. F5 picked out the best things from the previous films, and the best characters, and brought them together. In addition to this, added the Rock’s Hobbs as a great adversary for the main characters. In terms of the Fast and the Furious, Fast Five is as close as you can get to an automotive heist masterpiece.
High Point: 2 Chargers 1 Safe
Low Point: Offscreen race in Rio
To be completely honest, I find all of the movies in the Fast and the Furious franchise to be quite entertaining at at least some level. We can only hope that Hobbs and Shaw can keep that tradition going.
FlickFix 