The Future of the Franchise

A few months ago, Paul Walker stated that there might be an 8th, 9th, and 10th movie in the Fast and the Furious series. In my opinion, the plan will not be carried out, because one of the main actors that ran the entire franchise has passed away, and it would be quite difficult to continue a story line without that character. Not to mention, all the O'Connor fan followers would be raging with disappointment.  

The release of the seventh installment of the franchise was originally suppose to be released on July 11th 2014, however the release date is now pending.  All over the news on several online news site, such as Daily News, Buzz Feed, The Wrap and many more state that the writers and directors of Fast & Furious 7 have many options on how to continue the movie and the rest of the series, after the passing of Paul Walker. One of the many options is to digitally insert Walker's face on another actor. This option is realistic as it was proven in the movie Gladiator, when another actor's face was placed on Oliver Reed.1 Another option, is to re-write and re-film the entire movie 2. As of now, all decisions regarding the release and the continuation of the film are currently in post-production. In my opinion, I respect that the fact that the writers and directors put the film on hold, because it will provide an sufficient amount of time to make the best decision. I think that the film should not be re-written or re-filmed, because that would be eliminating Walker from the entire plot line, and I think it would be best to re-think parts of the story line, but not get rid of it all together. As it is the best way to honor Walker and his contributions he did to the franchise. I have also heard that Walker already completed filming the majority of his scenes, therefore re-editing those scenes, I believe is the best move for the film at this time. 

To conclude, the best way I see the series should continue is to end the story of the current characters, then fast forward into the future by ten to fifteen years and focus the series on Mia's and Brian's son, Jack. As I find that would definitely continue the franchise with a big bang.  

1http://www.buzzfeed.com/adambvary/paul-walker-death-fast-and-furious-7   

2http://www.thewrap.com/paul-walker-death-fast-furious-producers-may-scrap-production

The Best and the Worst Fast And The Furious movie

It was a difficult decision, but I came to the conclusion that my favorite film in the Fast and the Furious franchise is the sixth film, Fast & Furious 6; and the worst is the third film, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. In the next paragraphs I will discuss what makes these films the best and what makes them the worst.

Fast & Furious 6 is the best of the franchise, because it has the most action. The director, Justin Lin brings in a lot of sweet and classy cars in this movie, for example, a flip car, a tank and Dominic Toretto's 1970 Dodge Charger Daytona. Also, the writers integrated several comedic dialogue, mainly dialogue between Luke Hobbs and Roman Pierce. A scene that stands out the most is when Roman makes a rude remark to Hobbs about Mia hiding baby oil (in regards to Hobbs' shinny skin), and Hobbs replying to Roman to hide his large forehead.  As well as, the film has a lot of fighting scenes, and some amazing car stunts.They also had a lot of fighting and also a lot of scenes were there are cars that are doing crazy stuff. This is what makes Fast & Furious 6 the best film of the franchise, this far.

The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift is the worst movie of the Fast and the Furious franchise, mainly because there are not many racing scenes. As I previously stated, a large reason why I love watching this franchise is because of the racing stunts, and this film lacks that racing element. Even though, the film is focused on drift races, I do not find the drift races as excepted. As well as there are less jokes and less action. Not only that, the story line does not follow with the first two films in the franchise. I only started to like this film after three times of watching it. In my opinion, this film is the most different than any other of the films in the franchise, therefore it takes patience while watching and it is highly suggested to watch the film a few times, before criticizing the film.   

In conclusion, even the best franchise ever created has a less than perfect film. However, after the release of the seventh film, the story line of the the third film will finally make sense within the franchise. The films with the most action are my favorite, because I really enjoy the anticipation and excitement. 

With deep sorrow, friends, family and fans have lost an amazing concern for, Paul Walker. According to several media channels, like TMZ, EW.com, Wikipedia and IMDB to name a few, quickly spread the news of Walker's passing on Saturday, November 30th 2013. It was reported that Walker died in a major car accident, when his car hit a tree and caught on flames while leaving a charity event. Walker, 40, left behind a daughter, family, his Fast and Furious family and million fans worldwide. He was best known for his role as Brian O'Connor in the Fast and Furious franchise. In an interview, Walker stated: "If one day the speed kills me, do not cry, because I was smiling."1 At least he died doing something that he loved very much. On this day, we say good bye to a very talented and charitable human being. I am sure he will be missed and never forgotten, and his memory will live on forever. Paul Walker, rest in peace and thank you very much for sharing your talent with the world and I will miss you. Farewell, Paul Walker, farewell!    

1http://www.celebdirtylaundry.com/2013/rebecca-mcbrain-meadow-walker-paul-death-girlfriend-daughter-react-dead-crash-died-photos-1201/

Antagonists of the Franchise

In The Fast and the Furious franchise films there are many villains in each of the films, which all had a separate plans and motive from one another. The main villains of the films (in order of the films) are : Johnny Tran and his crew, Carter Verone, Takashi (Drift King), Arturo Braga and his crew, Hernan Reyes and Owen Shaw. These characters and their motives are explained in fuller details in the following paragraphs. 

In the first film, The Fast and the Furious, Johnny Tran, played by Rick Yune.1, is the rival street racer in Los Angles and wants to defeat Dominic Toretto and his crew. In my opinion, Yune played the role very good because Yune has serious and aggressive features that fits the character's personality.

In 2 Fast 2 Furious, the villain is Carter Verone, played by Cole Hauser.2 Verone is a clever and witty character, who is an expert at crimes. Verone is a dealer and a drug lord, who's ultimate goal is to become rich. The character demonstrates cleverness because he creates plans and stays under the radar from cops. In the quote: "put him and his money together" said by Agent Markham, means Verone was unable to be caught by the cops. 

In third film, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the villain is Takashi (Drift King), played by Brian Tee.3 Takashi is the winner of all drift races, and is nicknamed Drift King or DK. Drift King is the leader, and is feared by other drift racers. Drift King's leadership and title is threatened by Sean Boswell, when he arrives in Tokyo. 

In the fourth film, Fast & Furious, the villain is Arturo Braga, played by John Ortiz.4 Braga is a drug trafficker that imports drugs from the United States to Mexico illegally. Braga is a villain because he put Toretto and O'Connor in a challenging position. 

In the fifth film, Fast Five, the villian is Hernan Reyes, played by Joaquim de Almeida.5 Reyes is a corrupt business man and drug lord that controls Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, because of his large amount of money. Reyes' motive is retain his power in Rio de Janeiro, which enforces Toretto and his crew to visit Rio de Janeiro. 

In the sixth film, Fast & Furious 6, the criminal is Owen Shaw, played by Luke Evans.6 Shaw is taking down a military convoy and has plans to take over the world. CIA agent, Luke Hobbs teams up with Dominic Torretto to stop Shaw's plan.    

To conclude, each of the characters played a significant role in the franchise and lead the story where it is today. No one likes to root for the villain of the story, but in my opinion, it is the villain that creates the plot line of the story, making them the most important character in the film. 

1)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0232500/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

2)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0322259/?ref_=fn_al_tt_7

3) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463985/?ref_=fn_al_tt_5

4)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1013752/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

5)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596343/?ref_=nv_sr_1

6)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1905041/?ref_=fn_al_tt_4

What Makes This Franchise Successful

I personally really enjoy watching racing and action movies, and I believe they are the best types of movies. There are many fans like me who feel the same, which is why this franchise is as successful as it is today.

The first aspect I will discuss is about, how the writers' choices with choosing the main characters in the films were a perfect fit for the story line.  A few of the main characters in the films are Dominic Torretto, Brian O'Conner, Luke Hobbs and Roman Pearce. Dominic Toretto, played by Vin Diesel is stereotypically a "tough guy", because of his size, muscles, and leadership role. However, all of these characteristics make him the ideal Dominic. To continue Brian O'Conner, played by Paul Walker has a sensitive, face which makes viewers believe every line O'Conner says. As well as Walker participates in legal street racing in his spare time, which makes his character more realistic. Luke Hobbs is a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent and is played by Dwayne Johnson (The Rock). Hobbs is introduced in the fifth movie (Fast Five) to take down Toretto's crew. Johnson has similar physical features as Diesel, which is why they both make an excellent pair. Lastly, Roman Pearce, played by Tyrese Gibson, has a snarky, witty and hilarious attitude, which is perfect for film, because this character enlightens the seriousness of the film through his comments. Gibson reflects the character because in general, Gibson is a funny guy, mainly because of his past R& B singer career.   

Through the numerous characters in the films, my favorite character of the films is Roman Pearce. Pearce is my favorite, because in many ways I feel as if I share many similar qualities and personality with him. As I love eating food, making jokes and being humorous. Pearce is also my favorite character, because I believe Pearce evolved the most over the films. Pearce first appeared as a rebel with no ambition, and now he become a man who is willing to sacrifice himself for any of his crew members.

Action is as well another element contributing to the success of the franchise. Not only is action displayed throughout the racing scenes, but also the argument scenes. The action of the films makes what Fast and the Furious is, and it what makes viewers sit at the edge of  their seats. Also, the action elements is what makes the film unpredictable, and is a reason why I like watching these films. Additionally, along with the action, some really great songs are added, which makes the scenes even more intense and memorable.    

To conclude, the characters and the action scenes have a major affect on the success of the franchise, which captivates the audience to become a Fast and Furious fan for life.  

Apparel & Merchandise

The Fast and the Furious franchise is a very popular franchise. This is proven over and over again. One way that they have proved this is by the apparel and merchandise available.

In 2002, when the first movie (The Fast and the Furious) came out on VHS a lot of other merchandise also came out with the release. For example, model kits of the main cars were made, like the 1970 Charger, and the Toyota Supra. There were also die cast cars that came out of mostly of all the cars in the movie. Another type of merchandise they had was replicas of some of the memorabilia in the movies warn by the characters. An example of this is they made a replica of Dominic Toretto's known cross necklace, in which I own one myself. In my opinion, they chose the cross to replicate, because that cross is important to the story line, and also because Toretto wears it throughout every movie. They also have a lot of apparel that has "The Fast and the Furious" written on it, in addition to a picture of a nice car of the film.

Another method that generated a lot of money is through the video game world. In 2006, they have created a game called "The fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift", it was published for the main gaming consoles at that time, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable. Followed in 2011, Gameloft made an application that was called "Fast Five the movie" and it was compatible with Android and Apple market.1 In 2013, Kabam made another application called "Fast and Furious 6 the game" and was compatible with Android and Apple market.2 As well, in 2013, Activision created another game based off of the sixth movie and this game is called "Fast & Furious: Showdown", but it was developed on many platforms, such as  the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS, and the personal computer (PC). In their time all of these games made a big success because it is based on the franchise.

Lastly, all of the movies came out on VHS and has been re released on DVD. Also, each time a new movie comes out, it is released on so many different packs. For instance, there are some packs that are combo packs that include both the Blueray disc and the DVD disc. As well, there are some packs that include all the films in the franchise on separate discs, and some packs that come with limited edition items and special features. With my purchase of the Blueray and DVD combo pack of Fast Five, it included a "Fast Five" 4GB USB stick, which I frequently use. In addition, I own a few Fast and the Furious model cars, t-shirts, and movie posters.

Briefly, these are all different types of tactics that the makers of these films use to make more money and to make it more popular. Even though, these tactics are used for advertising and marketing schemes, I agree with these methods, because as a fan, it is always great receiving merchandise to display.

1)https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/fast-five-movie-official-game/id422299509?mt=8#
2)https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/fast-furious-6-the-game/id619375712
3)http://www.bestbuy.ca/Search/SearchResults.aspx?path=ca77b9b4beca91fe414314b86bb581f8en20&query=Fast+%26+Furious+Showdown

 

The Evolution of the Franchise

This post will discuss the franchise as a whole. 

As previously wrote in previous posts, there are six Fast and Furious films and a seventh will be released this summer. 
Fun Fact: The first film in the franchise, The Fast and the Furious (2001) was based on an article from the magazine Racer X, and was written by the writer of the film, Kenneth Li. The article was about a man that street races in New-York city.

To explain more on my first post, The Fast and Furious Story behind the franchise, I said that the first film was located in Los Angeles, and as the movies went along, it got to much larger countries around the world. In the first film, the story line was around one main street racing crew, known as the Dominic Toretto crew, and as the number crew in Los Angeles. As well as other street racers were looking up to Toretto and wanted to be just like him. As the films went on, each movie got a larger and more interesting story line. In the fourth Fast and Furious movie, the writers started to write much larger scripts with larger action scenes. As well as the films got outside of the United States for the first time. With the three films that follow, they were filmed in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), London and Tokyo. Therefore, as the films keep growing, in my opinion, the film's budget got bigger, and provides greater freedom.

Also, throughout the releases of the films, the fan base gets bigger. According to Fast & Furious fan page on Facebook, since the beginning of the series in 2001 until now, the fan base has evolved to 40 million fans. 

The Fast and Furious film developed a lot through the years. Even with the three years gap between Tokyo Drift and Fast & Furious, the series still developed in terms of fans and in terms of graphics and writing.

The Audience

The Fast and the Furious franchise has a wide variety in the types of audience. Every Fast and Furious film is rated PG 13 in Canada and 14 A in the United States, however, in my opinion the suggested rating is ignored by younger audiences. In the following paragraphs, I go into more details regarding the different types of viewers of the films.

Firstly, at 10 years old, I first begun to be interested in the Fast and Furious franchise. Although, while watching the films for the first time, I did not exactly understand the story line or the dialogue of the film. I found myself repeatedly asking my family what some words meant. However, I am most certain that there are many other young children like me, who were interested in cars and decided to watch the movie, and were confused throughout the majority of the film. It was not until a few years later that I re-watched the films and discovered a whole new point of view for the films.

Secondly, there are viewers of the film that decide to watch the films, mainly because of the thrill of the action, the story lines and the actors. I believe that there is part of the Fast and Furious audience, that only watch the films because of Paul Walker and Vin Diesel. I find that completely fine, because there are also viewers of the films, who watch because of the cars and the street racing. I personally watch because I enjoy watching action movies, and I have interest in cars, therefore the Fast and Furious is a major combination of my interests.  

Lastly, the directors and writers target the writing of the film for male viewers in their 20s to 30s. I believe that is the reason why the racing scenes appear so real, that is the reason why the content is mature. The films have a specific rating for the audience, because it provides more freedom to the writers and directors while creating the story.

In all, the Fast and Furious films are enjoyable to all age groups, whether it is because of the actors, cars or racing scenes. I find the most interesting element of the film is how the films appeal differently to everyone.

Advertising

You are probably reading the title of this post and wondering if there were advertising in the Fast and the Furious movies. Well yes there was and a lot of it. In my opinion, the movies that had the most advertising was the last two movies in the franchise, Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6. However, there is a bit of advertising in all the Furious films, including The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. There are many advertisements in the franchise, however I am going to focus on the main advertisements.

First, I am going to discuss the advertisement of Chrysler in these movies. The 1970 Charger that Dominic Toretto drives makes an appearance in all Furious films that Vin Diesel was in. In my opinion, having the the Charger in every film, must cost a fortune, as any other vehicle could have been chosen. As Dominic Toretto is associated with the Charger, which creates its identity. As well, Chrysler vehicles are in several scenes throughout Fast Five and Fast and Furious 6; from the beginning to the end. If you analyse every scene of the films, like I do, you will realize that Chrysler are usually the cars in the races, and the cars that are talked about. Additionally, Nissan vehicles, such as the Nissan GT-R also appear in the films. As Brian O'Connor drives and is associated with the Nissan.

Secondly, there was the advertisement of the company Nitrous oxide system (Nos) and that company supplies in their tanks Nitrous oxide. For example, in all of the cars, the Fast films advertise Nos, a recognized brand, than any other small Nitrous oxide brand that is hardly known. Also, like I said before, if you are like me and analyse each scene you start to notice small stuff in the movies. For example, in the forth movie there is a few posters of Nos in the allies, as well there was a machine selling Nos energy drinks, which you will see Brian O'Connor drinking one of them.

The Fast and the Furious franchise advertises well known brands worldwide, such as Chrysler and Nos. Now all of you readers know that the cars and the bit of advertising comes from and that it helps the movies a lot.

Inspiration

Today I will discuss the movies of racing that inspired this franchise and also what made it a really successful movie. I will also talk about the movies that came out before and after The Fast and The Furious movies, and thirdly, I will talk about what this franchise gave to this type of movie genre.



An interesting fact that most people do not know about is that in 1955 there was a movie that was called The Fast and the Furious. This movie was about crime, racing and love. The Fast and the Furious from 2001 shares a lot of similar ideas as the original The Fast and the Furious from 1955, however the 2001 film included more characters and plot lines than the 1955 film. In my opinion, the original The Fast and the Furious was an amazing movie for its time, however it would not be a number one hit today, mainly because of the amount of characters and action scenes.

Movies that came out before and after, the 1955 film, in my opinion, the best racing movie in the world were, Days of Thunder (1955), RedLine 2007, Torque 2004 and other bad movies. Those movies listed, I find are not as good as the Fast films because they do not seem as real, as well as the racing scenes are not as interesting because there is no background music. In the Fast and the Furious from 2001, is full of music and sounds of the engine. I think these special features make the movie more impacting. Lastly, the movies of the Fast and the Furious brought to these types of movies are their integrated new and old muscle cars, comedy, a lot of action and plenty of really cool stunts.

That is why the Fast and Furious stands out to be one of the best racing film series of all time. 

The Fast and The Furious Story Behind the Franchise

The Fast and the Furious franchise has begun in 2001 and continues to gain fans. The franchise will continue with their seventh release on July 11th 2014. Throughout each movie, fans were capable to grow close to the characters, which in my opinion has a major effect on its popularity.

In the beginning of the franchise, street racing was the major theme of the movie. The first movie took place in Los Angeles, now the movie has evolved to countries all over the world. The first movie, called The Fast and the Furious earned $144,533,925, more than double the amount of their estimated budget of $38,000,000. That proves The Fast and Furious franchise would be popular and entertaining for fans. Fast and Furious 6, the sixth movie in the franchise earned $283,673,730 with a budget of $160,000,000, statistically showing the franchise never lost any popularity. 

As well as the six films in the franchise, Fast and Furious also has two short films that connect a  few of the story lines between the releases of the movies. These short films also remind the audience of the characters and creates an opening scene for the following movie. The first short film was called Turbo Charged Prelude (2003) which demonstrated a liaison between the first two films, then the second short film, Los Bandoleros (2009) acted as a small timeline for the character, Brian O'Connor. In fact that many fans do not realize is that the order in which the films were released is not the order in which the story presents itself. For instance, the third movie release called, The Fast and the Furious; Tokyo Drift (2006) is actually the sixth movie in the story line. Also, the studio recently announced that there are future plans to create two more Fast movies following the seventh release this summer.

If there is one thing to remember about The Fast and Furious movies, is that it is a well made movie, for example action, love, friendship and family.

The Fast and The Furious - Trailers 1-6

The Fast and The Furious - Theatrical Trailer

2 Fast 2 Furious - Theatrical-Trailer














The Fast and The Furious Tokyo Drift - Trailer
















Fast & Furious - Theatrical Trailer

Fast Five - Theatrical Trailer














Fast and Furious 6 - Theatrical Trailer

I hope you enjoy these trailers like I do.