The Fast and the Furious: 25th Anniversary Edition 4K Ultra HD Review

THE MOVIE — 3½/5

Plot synopsis: On the turbo-charged streets of Los Angeles, every night is a championship race. With nitro-boosted fury Dominic Toretto (VIN DIESEL) rules the road, turning all his challengers into dust. He and his rival, Johnny Tran (RICK YUNE), are the boldest, the boldest and the best. Now, there’s new rage on the road. They know he’s tough, they know he’s fast, but what they don’t know is that he’s a speed-crazed detective (PAUL WALKER) with enough drive and determination to come out the winner. With intense full-throttle action, awesome high-speed stunts and full-on petal-to-the-metal intensity.

Review (from 2009): Rob Cohen’s 2001 “high-octane” street racing movie starring thespian actors Vin Diesel and Paul Walker was a hit at the theaters hauling in $144.53m at the box office (~$180m adjusted). And although the writing was piss poor aided in large part to the stilted acting skills of Walker, The Fast and the Furious still is a fun movie that I cannot get enough of. You got everything a young male wants: fast cars, hot women, hot women driving fast cars and a simple story. It is a winning formula if I ever saw one.

The Fast and the Furious propelled Vin Diesel into stardom. His name alone looks perfect a top of a poster for that next summer blockbuster and with someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger fading into the background with only moderate success with Terminator 3, Diesel was primed to take over as an action star. 2002 brought another great – and mindless – action vehicle with xXx, but Diesel had higher aspirations which ultimately failed with success endeavors as A Man Apart, The Chronicles of Riddick and Babylon A.D., though he did get in on that macho-action-star-in-a-kid-friendly-comedy genre with The Pacifier which made a sizeable $113m domestically. Now with a floundering career, he will be returning to the Fast franchise at long last…

And it’s not as if Dominic Toretto is a complex character or anything but Vin Diesel made it his own despite what the script – by Gary Scott Thompson (“Las Vegas”), Erik Bergquist (first and only credit) and David Ayer (Harsh Times) – fails to provide in terms of character development, of course in all honesty, the movie didn’t need it anyway. In any case, Diesel fit perfectly for the role and really made The Fast and the Furious a fun and mindless action movie.

As for Diesel’s esteemed co-star, Paul Walker, while I make fun of the guy, if you look over his career, as a whole he’s had some decent quality movies with the occasional stinkers. But for every Into the Blue there’s Running Scared or Joy Ride. Certainly not award contenders, but solid movies. His Brian O’Conner character isn’t as highly regarded as Toretto (most people will gravitate to the bad guy over a bland good guy), but if Tokyo Drift showed anything, it was without either the original’s stars, it would not make an impact in both the box office nor audiences.

The rest of the cast fill up the roles great from Michelle Rodriguez as Dom’s hot and saucy squeeze to Jordana Brewster as Toretto’s sister who gets involved with O’Conner who, of course, is undercover to take down Toretto.

Sure the writing and acting may not be Shakespeare but The Fast and the Furious is a fun, guilty pleasure that is certainly a product of its time, particularly the look and style. That said, I still find the movie so much fun with great racing sequences.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 3½/5

This release comes with a slightly embossed slip cover. Inside is a redempti0on code for the Digital HD copy.

Riding a Legacy: 25 Years of Fast (27:35) is a new retrospective featurette with interviews, conducted during the Cannes Film Festival, by the cast (including Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster), producer Neal Moritz and Meadow Walker, Paul Walker’s daughter.

The Making of The Fast and the Furious (18:03) — Featurette from circa 2001 with behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew.

Deleted Scenes (6:24) are 8 scenes either cut or cut down. Included is an optional commentary with Cohen.

More Than Furious (2:28) is an alternate ending.

Hot Off the Street (4:38) are a series of additional scenes.

Dom’s Charger (4:21) is a featurette on Toretto’s iconic car.

Quarter Mile at a Time (9:43) — Look at the phenomenon of street racing, from its birth in the 20’s.

Tricking Out a Hot Import Car (20:02) — Join Craig Lieberman, technical advisor on THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS, as he tricks out a Mitsubishi Lancer.

Multiple Camera Angles – Stunt Sequence — Here we get 8 camera angles of the big stunt scene.

Movie Magic Interactive – Special Effects is where you can look at the composites of a few scenes.

Featurette on Editing for the Motion Picture Association of America (4:37) to edit so the film could secure a PG-13 rating.

Visual Effects Montage (3:44)

Storyboards-to-Final Feature Comparison (6:49)

Music Videos:

• “Furious” – Ja Rule
• “ POV City Anthem” – Caddillac Man
• “Click Click Boom” – Saliva

Speed News Wrap (2:03)

Feature Commentary with Director Rob Cohen

VIDEO – 4¾/5

Universal releases The Fast and the Furious onto 4K Ultra HD presented in its original 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio and with an all-new re-master, updated from the 2018 4K release. Now I don’t own a copy of the original on 4K UHD, I cannot to a direct comparison but I suppose it’s a nice thing that it wasn’t just the old transfer. In early 2000s the orange/teel look was all the rage, like this, Swordfish and Gone in Sixty Seconds, with an oversaturated color timing.

AUDIO – 5/5

The disc comes with a Dolby Atmos track that really excels during the nearly non-stop action and racing sequences however even the quiet, dialogue-driven scenes outputs with great clarity. That said, from my experience this was a movie that already sounded fantastic so this is not a significant improvement, but still great nonetheless.

OVERALL — 3¾/5

No one would ever accuse The Fast and the Furious to be some top-notch action-thriller with memorable dialogue or phenomenal performances, but now going on 25 years later there is no doubt it is a lot of fun. This 25th anniversary edition 4K Ultra HD does feature great audio and video transfers and a good amount of bonus material, though only one featurette that is new.