Fast Month - The Fate of the Furious

F8? Fate? Pun title. Man, this franchise is old.

We arrive at what’s currently the final movie in this franchise, the Fate of the Furious. Released in 2017, the movie was successful, though not as successful as 7. You could that down to the publicity boost the last movie got from the death of Paul Walker, Universal was not expecting to replicate its success, though it still broke the $1bn mark, not bad for a franchise that barely broke even when it started.

It did dip slightly critically though, dropping to a 66% rotten tomatoes rating with an average 6.1/10 and 6.7/10 on IMDb.

So, is it worth the hype, here are my thoughts.

Fast Month - Furious 7

Well, this is movie where this Franchise entered the big leagues, this movie made over $1bn at the world-wide box office, and got critical acclaim of 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average of 6.7/10, the highest the series has ever gotten and a decent 7.2/10 on IMDb, only slightly below 5.

Compounding everything is the unfortunate death of Paul Walker. He died (rather ironically) in a car crash. Most of the filming had been completed, all they did is re-do the ending, with digital effects houses super-imposing Walker’s face over the body of one of his brothers. We’ll talk about how they ended it later. But here are my thoughts on how the movie stands as a whole.

Fast Month - Fast and Furious 6

Fast and Furious 6 showed the success of Fast 5 was not an accident, making $788m at the box office, with a budget of $160m; it wasn’t quite as big a critical hit, though it still holds a respectable 69% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average 6.2/10 with an IMDb rating of 7.1. But is it on the right path, or were the peaks reached in the last movie? Let’s take a look

Fast Month - Fast Five

We're through the preliminary stages here, this is where this franchise began to make the big bucks. The budget was increased to $125m but the sweet reward was earning over $600m at the box office, and this wouldn’t be the heights of this franchise’s success. And it’s the first to gain a more positive critical buzz with a 77% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (average 6.4/10) and a 7.3 rating on IMDb. What caused this sudden turnaround, let’s take a closer look.

Fast Month - Fast and Furious

How do you return your franchise to its roots? Apparently, you take the ‘thes’ out of your title. This is Fast Month

Vin Diesel and David Walker are back, and that’s all anyone will really care about. This movie had a budget of $85m, much like the last one, but was much more popular, making $363m, the next movie would go onto making nearly double that but back to business

Critically, this movie struggled to find its footing, a mere 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average 4.6/10, it was hardly picking up the slack from the previous movies. But it’s been a while now, how does it hold up?

Fast Month - The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

The Fast and the Furious franchise nearly died here. This movie failed critically and at the box office. It made $158.5m on an $85m budget, would’ve needed to have made about $200m to be profitable. I guess the success of the other 2 was enough to convince Universal to try again with 4, but it could well have died here.

So, what the hell happened here? Let’s take a look.

Fast Month - 2 Fast 2 Furious

Well, the first movie was a hit, so a sequel was inevitable, and because they love puns, 2 Fast 2 Furious, this is Fast Month

There is technically a short film between the events of the first and second movies. It’s entirely skippable so we’ll be skipping over it. 2 Fast 2 Furious was released in 2003, and is the only movie in the Franchise not to star Vin Diesel, he was busy working on xXx, which sounds like a low-rent porno. I’ve never actually seen xXx. Also, the Chronicals of Riddick, which lost money at the box office so… great choice there.

The budget was increased, this time at around $76m, the box office was also increased, but only to $236m, far from the juggernaut it would become later on. The sequel was not critically acclaimed with a 37% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average 4.7/10 and 5.9 on IMDb, with 2 razzie nominations for worst remake/sequel and worst excuse for a movie (all concept/no content). But here are my thoughts.

Fast Month - The Fast and the Furious

It’s time to go full Throttle: It’s Fast Month

A Franchise that grew from humble beginnings to a multi-million-dollar behemoth, the Fast and Furious certainly managed to hit the right balance to remain profitable, despite reception of the movies themselves not always being great. Throughout the month of June, I’ll be looking at the 8 current instalments of the franchise and giving my brief thoughts on all of them.

Just a heads up (sponsored by Coca Cola, though not really), Paul Walker may be mentioned in these reviews, not always in a positive light, if that makes you uncomfortable, check out my Iron Fist retrospectives or something, he plays a lead character, I can’t exactly shy away from it. (This was sponsored by Coca Cola, though not really - if you don't get the joke, watch the stupid as f*ck safety warning at the beginning)

With that said, let’s start at the beginning with The Fast and the Furious. Made on a modest budget of $37m, it made $207m at the box office. Not bad for a film about street racing, but modest compared to what this franchise would later earn. It had a mixed reception critically, with a 53% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 5.4/10 and a 6.7/10 IMDb rating. But here are my thoughts.

Mini Review: Spy Game

I’ve got to admit, I disagree with the majority on this one, but we’ll get to that, Spy Game was released in 2001 and starred Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. It made some money, not much, only $143m on a colossal (for this kind of movie) $115m budget. Bearing in mind that theatres take a cut of that and any promotional expenditure, I’d be surprised if this wasn’t a loss for the production companies.

The movie met with reasonably positive reception, a 66% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 7/10 on IMDb and 63% on MetaCritic but as my first statement told you, I’m not going to be one of those people. Why not, well, let’s take a look?