Fast & Furious (2009) - Franchise revamped in dumb and poorly made sequel

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This stylish poster for Justin Lin's Fast & Furious lets the returning stars throw their reflections on the shiny hood of a hotrod

Dominic Toretto's sister Letty dies in an accident, and a criminal named Braga seeks drivers.

The stars of the first film (The Fast and the Furious (2001)) are brought together again for the first time since in this the fourth entry in the increasingly gilt-edged franchise, which, unfortunately, is enormously hollow, superficial and lacking in suspense.
Screenwriter Chris Morgan (Wanted (2008)) takes simplicity to a new level and even has the heroic characters refer to the villains as the bad guys. From the head-scratching intro scene (the hijacking of a tanker truck ends in a huge, disastrous explosion, - but somehow also in payment, which makes little sense), Fast & Furious unfolds as a bland mix of lukewarm dramatic scenes among the friends, who usually refer to each other as family, and action with unsubtle sex references (like fueling up...), destruction and sketchy CGI, including a poor climax taking place on roads inside a mountain. Taiwanese Justin Lin (Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)) returned for his second of four turns as director in the franchise here.
Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman (2017)) makes her cinema debut in the film, but it can't change the fact that Fast & Furious is a solid bummer.

Related posts:

The Fast & Furious franchise: The Fast and the Furious (2001) - Cohen & Co.'s corny teen dream franchise opener
Justin Lin: Star Trek Beyond (2016) - Lin's adventurous, foundation-honoring entry 
Fast & Furious 5/Fast Five/Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist (2011) - Dwayne Johnson refuels the world's probably most ridiculous franchise
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 85 mil. $
Box office: 363.1 mil. $
= Big hit
[Fast & Furious premiered 12 March (California) and runs 107 minutes. In the franchise's chronology, the film takes place between 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006). Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, Mexico, Panama City, Panama and the Dominican Republic from February - June 2008. The film opened #1 to a 70.9 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for 3 consecutive weeks (#1-#2-#5) and grossed 155 mil. $ (42.7 % of the total gross). It made more domestically in its opening weekend than Tokyo Drift made in its entire run there. It broke the domestic opening record for April and Spring overall. It was the 17th highest-grossing film of the year globally. Roger Ebert gave the film a 1½ star review, equal to its rating here. It sold more than 3.3 mil. home video copies in North America, accruing an additional 53.8 mil. $. Lin came back to helm two more top-grossing entries: Fast Five (2011) and Fast & Furious 6 (2013). Fast & Furious is rotten at 28 % with a 4.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Fast & Furious?