My love for the Fast & Furious franchise cannot be
contained. It knows no bounds. It is an unstoppable, almost supernatural
force that has led me to marathon the entire six-movie set more times
than I can count. For God’s sake, I co-host a dedicated Fast & Furious podcast.
And here’s the thing: I don’t think I’m alone. Granted, my obsession may run a little deeper than it does for most, but the progenitor of this series is now 14 years old; today, there are teenagers who have quite literally grown up with Dom, Brian, and the gang. Obviously, at its most basic level, each new Fast film is a high-budget ode to street racing and explosions — but this has also now become a telenovela for the movie-going set. Once every year or two, we check in on the Torettos, the O’Conners, and their perfect little slice of LA. We want to know how they’re doing. Mia’s baby must be getting big now!
The downside to this kind of mad devotion to Vin Diesel’s kingdom of steel and testosterone, of course, is that disappointment is a substantial and ever-present risk. And never has anticipation for a Fast & Furious film been greater — both for me personally and for the movie-going population at large — than it has ahead of the release of Furious 7. There’s certainly some morbid fascination around the tragic mid-filming death of Paul Walker and how his central character of Brian O’Conner would be handled, but there’s also the simple reality that this is a Fast & Furious joint. They always get bigger, crazier, more deliciously absurd. Considering the precedents set by Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6, it’s a tough benchmark to beat.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall
And here’s the thing: I don’t think I’m alone. Granted, my obsession may run a little deeper than it does for most, but the progenitor of this series is now 14 years old; today, there are teenagers who have quite literally grown up with Dom, Brian, and the gang. Obviously, at its most basic level, each new Fast film is a high-budget ode to street racing and explosions — but this has also now become a telenovela for the movie-going set. Once every year or two, we check in on the Torettos, the O’Conners, and their perfect little slice of LA. We want to know how they’re doing. Mia’s baby must be getting big now!
The downside to this kind of mad devotion to Vin Diesel’s kingdom of steel and testosterone, of course, is that disappointment is a substantial and ever-present risk. And never has anticipation for a Fast & Furious film been greater — both for me personally and for the movie-going population at large — than it has ahead of the release of Furious 7. There’s certainly some morbid fascination around the tragic mid-filming death of Paul Walker and how his central character of Brian O’Conner would be handled, but there’s also the simple reality that this is a Fast & Furious joint. They always get bigger, crazier, more deliciously absurd. Considering the precedents set by Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6, it’s a tough benchmark to beat.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall
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