The Original Fast and the Furious Movies are Amazing

I watched the original three F&F movies growing up as a kid, and loved every minute. I was a mere child who had no idea how cars worked but learned enough words and phrases from those movies to make myself look foolish in front of professional mechanics.

Now that I’m well into adulthood, going back to those movies is pure… bliss. They are 10/10 movies. You can disagree, you can quote Rotten Tomatoes and Reddit rage how cringe they were (queue Brian’s “cuh” from 2F2F). Sue me. Those movies are masterpieces. The story, the action, the cinematography, even the acting is great (because it actually SERVES the film, and is aware of itself).

Ok so now that everyone who claims that sleep-fest known as The Godfather is actually a good movie thinks I have no class, allow me to justify myself:

Story: cop goes undercover to bust a gang known for illegal street racing and performing heists. During his investigation, he finds out they’re not bad people, and grows a relationship with them. In fact, he finds out who the true bad guys are in town, and through a series of messy misfortunes, finds himself taking down the real bad guys. Afterwords, he becomes so immersed in the culture that he becomes the new “king of street racing”. Idc what you say, the whole premise sounds fun as hell, was the perfect product for its time, and aged like wine.

Action: absolutely S-tier. This was before F&F was shooting cars into outer space. Everything looked practical and REAL. You were convinced 90% of the stunts were real cars being driven and maneuvered on the road. There were some silly over-the-top scenes, but nothing too crazy. Everything felt in the realm of possibility and the action just keeps the movie moving with excitement.

Cinematography and Acting: I like a self-aware movie. The best movies are movies where the actors aren’t “try hards”. Serious movies are so bad and cringe. Movies like F&F are clearly self-aware of their silliness and fully own it. It’s what makes watching a movie after living the ills of real life bearable. Give me cheese all day, I’ll take it over some try-hard being all serious and boring.

In conclusion, OG F&F is fantastic even to this day. If you don’t like the movies, that’s fine. But I think they are masterpieces that aged like fine wine and never stop being fun.

Housekeeping: this post is ONLY effective to the original three F&F movies, that is:
The Fast and the Furious
2 Fast 2 Furious
F&F Tokyo Drift

The newer F&F movies did start going over the top and completely abandon the street racing theme that makes the OG’s great.