Review of Fast and the Furious, The (Collector`s Edition)

Introduction

A cop goes undercover to infiltrate a gang hijacking lorry loads of expensive gear. Put this against the backdrop of illegal street racing and high performance cars and you`ll be forgiven for thinking this sounds like a familiar plot (Point Break anyone?), the main attraction here however are the flashy tuned up cars. This film was originally inspired by an article on street racing by Kenneth Li but something needed to be added to the racing mix so the hijacking subplot gets added in.

Video

The 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer is pretty clean and almost flawless. The colours are balanced and well saturated whilst the detail is very high. The production design and overall style of the cinematography shines with sheer vibrancy. This is a great transfer and I expected nothing less from a recent film. There are only a couple of instances where the detail on radiator grills weren`t resolved cleanly, but I`m just being picky.

Audio

I certainly have no complaints in the sound department. We have a choice of DTS5.1 and DD5.1 soundtracks but unfortunately these couldn`t be changed on the fly to test between them. From what I can tell they both sound loud, clear with a good deal of rumbling bass where it counts most. Dialogue too is pretty clear for the most part, unless we`re talking hardcore engine stuff which unless you`re au fait with, might just whiz by overhead. The sound design is quite effective and coupled with the music matches the onscreen visuals in the quality stakes.

Features

There`s a multitude of extras on this bloated disc, it`s chocker with page after page of special features but all of this is presented with a poorly designed and tedious menu system that seems to take forever to execute.

First up is the Director Commentary with Rob Cohen. I thought this was pretty interesting as he talks incessantly about the film production and his intentions. The man can sure talk where others remain silent. The making of is just the usual 18 minute PR featurette but it does have a few interesting things in it. Racer X: the article that inspired the movie is reproduced here as text pages. I got bored after reading the first page and would much rather have this in a booklet.

The Featurette on editing the film for the MPAA lasts about five minutes and isn`t that interesting. It shows one scene and the decision making process to trim the film down. Once you`ve seen it once though you`re not likely to see it again. Deleted Scenes is exactly what it says on the menu and contains eight scenes with optional director commentary. Thankfully you can play all scenes in one go rather than select them individually and I thought the scenes were interesting. It`s easy to see why these were cut.

Three music videos with Ja Rule, Cadillac Ta and Saliva. Music Highlights is a good part to just identify what music is in the film which stops you from having to guess and post endless bulletin board messages asking after what music plays in what film... ;-) The multiple camera angle stunt sequence isn`t what I thought it would be. Here it`s just eight different cameras filming the final scene from different angles. You can select to watch any, then watch the final cut sequence. There I was thinking it was a DIY edit suite type deal which would have been better (like in Die Hard).

Movie Magic Interactive Special Effects is a basic feature and is only interactive in that you can select different plates (shots) used in the final scene showing how it was composited into the final shot. Nothing special or new about this, no commentary and no further text either, why bother putting this in in the first place? Storyboards are nothing more than a frilly feature and show nothing new, in fact it`s quite dull.

The Visual Effects montage is actually quite good and shows the first street race mixed in with storyboards and CGI. I thought it was pretty interesting since you get a peek at where the effects were in the scene. Following this are Production Notes about the film and Cast and Filmmakers bio.

The trailer is the usual scene giveaway nonsense. Why can`t proper teasers be made like the old days? I used to love watching trailers before the main feature just so I could get into the spirit of the film, but these days I stay away from them completely. And for those that need even more stuff, there are two easter eggs.

The DVD-Rom portion re-creates the official website with wallpaper, screensaver and all the other usual stuff, there`s nothing fancy here. There are subtitles in English and Hindi with subtitled director commentary too. It`s a shame that the audio tracks can`t be changed on the fly during the movie for easy soundtrack comparisons between DTS and DD.

Conclusion

Flashy cars, loud music and a good looking cast helped this film rake in the boxoffice cash to become a huge hit last year and it`s done the same thing again on DVD. It`s sold bucketseat loads and it`s easy to see why. Visually it looks the part. Plus of course the high performance cars are another pulling factor for the irreverant testosterone fuelled petrol headed Max Power reading audience (or anyone else, who like me, likes high performance motorsport).

The underlying hijacking subplot though is nothing of note and seems an afterthought in an attempt to bind this and the love interest to the subculture exposé of the magazine article. The cast don`t have a lot here to test them either so it doesn`t seem to matter who was cast in these roles, I`m sure anyone could have done it.

Are there any redeeming features? Well yes, despite the tiring cliché ridden script, I do admit to enjoying parts of the film. There`s just something I find compelling about the visual style, the engine noise and the few good high speed chase scenes that hold my attention. This isn`t enough for me though, I need some substance mixed in there too. The only interesting extra features here are Rob Cohen`s commentary track, the visual effects montage and the deleted scenes. I think the other extras are a bit skimpy once you delve into them.

The Fast and the Furious is a trashy throwaway movie which is great for testing out your system and eating bucket loads of popcorn to, just don`t go in expecting to be taxed in any way and you won`t come away disappointed. Rent before buying unless you know what you`re letting yourself in for.