This review contains spoilers.Fast & Furious or Fast & Furious 4 is the fourth installment to The Fast & Furious franchise. The movie is a sequel to The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift but is more of a direct sequel to 2 Fast 2 Furious. The movie features Paul Walker and Vin Diesel as they reprise their roles of Brian O'Conner and Dominic Toretto respectively. The crew from the first movie confront a drug lord called Braga that wrongs both Dominic and Brian.The plot of this movie is incredibly incomprehensible. Many events in the plot simply happen without any reason or the flimsiest of reasoning. This movie's plot is an excuse to show car chases. The story keeps up the action at the expense of the plot. An example of this is in one car race, Brian is knocked out of the race. He is able to use his FBI connections to re-unite with Dominic Toretto by taking another person's place. The other characters and even the villain simply accept this and allow it to happen.The main story of Letty's murder is not well done. This story feels incredibly flimsy and the audience does not even see the murder happen. It is simply in a flashback scene that is told. I understand that the movie wanted to use this event as the reason for Dominic Toretto's mission but it felt incredibly forced.The finale of the movie improves the rest of the movie. With an explosive finale and the story being wrapped up, the movie concludes in a satisfying way. This movie did set up the rest of the series well and this can be considered this installment's strength. I did look forward to the other future installments because of this movie. The movie ends with the crew assembling and busting Dom out of a prison truck.I do not recommend Fast & Furious. This movie's plot is a jumbled mess. The only redeeming factor for this movie is its place for the rest of the series.

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.

With a few meandering and unproductive features, 'Fast & Furious' takes the series to new grounds. Bringing back familiar faces but finally implementing some much needed emotional depth, the fourth installment was the best of the franchise to that date.Back after a short hiatus are Vin Diesel and Paul Walker playing Dom Toretto and Brian O'Connor respectively. Not that the previous two films were entirely pointless, but Dom and Brian are the heart of the films. Without them, you don't get the same feeling of family and meaningful relationships. 'Fast & Furious' may not feature the high-octane stunts and action that its successors do, but it brought the series back to being about family, and particularly the drama that sometimes goes on between family. O'Connor is miraculously back to being an FBI agent after betraying their trust multiple times in the past, but with this series that type of stuff doesn't matter. Toretto is on the run once again since he went missing following the events of the first film. As ridiculous as it is to see Brian once again after Dom, I feel like it was the one last obstacle these two needed before they gained back each other's trust. Once they do, the film takes off. I love all the tension between Brian, Dom, and Mia, especially knowing where all of them end up. But I also love watching the cast drive insanely fast cars at ridiculous speeds and wreck every bit of them. The fourth film still tries to tell a lame undercover racing/drug/crime story with its villain, but the rest of it is a hell of a ride.The supporting cast includes the likes of Michelle Rodriguez, Gal Gadot, Sung Kang, Jordana Brewster, and John Ortiz. The latter plays the villainous Campos and probably has the most depth and/or personality out of any previous F&F antagonist. Rodriguez is back as Letty, who's death (being a central plot line to the film) is probably the most complicated and convoluted death I've ever seen from any franchise, and I'm still not sure I know exactly what happened.Overall, Fast & Furious progressed the series back to its Toretto vs O'Connor roots, but managed to finally give us the balance of emotion and action that we've wanted. It also happens to be the film that set up what is now more of a heist franchise than it is full of big muscles and muscle cars.+Dom & Brian+Finally balances emotion and action+Supporting cast is written and acted very well-Letty's death & Brian's time with the FBI is still puzzling8.2/10

Fast & Furious(2009) Starring: Vin Disel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, John Ortiez, Laz Alonso, Gal Gadot, Jack Conley, Shea Whigham, Liz lapria, Sung Kang, Don Omar, Brandon T. Jackson, and Mousa Kraish Directed By: Justin Lin Review New Model. Original Parts. These movies may be fast but they need to catch up and that's exactly what they started doing with this one. Not to mention it has a perfect title Fast & Furious, this should have been the third film to be released instead of Tokyo Drift. Tokyo Drift was just utterly terrible. When a crime brings them back to L.A., fugitive ex-con Dom Toretto reignites his feud with agent Brian O'Conner. But as they are forced to confront a shared enemy, Dom and Brian must give in to an uncertain new trust if they hope to outmaneuver him. And the two men will find the best way to get revenge: push the limits of what's possible behind the wheel. The opening sequence of the film was amazing it was like a heist where they were getting on a cargo to steal some( well to be honest I don't what they were trying to get) but right when they complete that mission soon someone dies and that causes a great dispute for Don Tretto. The performances from the cast like Vin Disel, he isn't great but he isn't bad he's just good. Michelle Rodriguez is the weakest of the cast and was barely in the movie so I guess that was good and Paul Walker was good. But everyone else was terrible. The direction from Justin Lin was better this time around I felt like with Tokyo Drift he was more up for shining flashy cars at you in bad ass racing. Fast & Furious is a step up in the series it's got some good acting, great action sequences but falls short with some bad acting and an uninteresting plot that falls flat. Fast & Furious gets a two and a half out of five.