The Fast and the Furious

Hey folks. Well the week has been tragic as I will be attending the funeral of my little brother in a few days. He leaves behind 4 kids that will have a hard struggle to move on but I will do what I can to assist that. Today I thought we would look at one of his favorite movies. So get ready for far too much vehicular terminology, over the top action, hot guys and girls.

This is The Fast and the Furious.

'Sup playa?

LAPD officer Brian O'Connor (the late Paul Walker of Timeline, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Noel, Into the Blue, Running Scared, Flags of our Fathers, Bobby Z and Fast & Furious) is undercover to conduct investigations of potential illegal street racers are responsible for boosting semi trucks of their cargo. Like pirates of the highway. A little over 1.2 million dollars in stolen electronics has been boosted. Guess the manifests on these cargo containers didn't include SERIAL NUMBERS!!!

Okay that SNAFU writing aside, Brian is undercover racing himself, hooks up with a crew led by Dominic Toretto (Vin Disel of Boiler Room,Pitch Black, Knockaround Guys, XXX, The Chronicles of Riddick, Riddick, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Last Witchhunter and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2), a gear head with a heart of gold looking out for his baby sister Mia (Jordana Brewster of The Faculty, As the World Turns, D.E.B.S., The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, American Heist and Dallas), his sorta girl Letty (Michelle Rodriguez of Resident Evil, Blue Crush, S.W.A.T., BloodRayne, The Breed, Avatar, Machete, Resident Evil: Retribution and The Assignment), mechanic guru Jesse (Chad Lindberg of The Rookie, The Last Samurai, Adam and Ever, Punk Love, Crimes of the Past, I Spit on Your Grave and Rise of the Zombies) and gruff Vince (Matt Schulze of Blade II, The Transporter, Seven Mummies, Final Move, Mr. Brooks, The Flock and Fast Five).

Crap. Did I turn the oven off?

Thick as thieves this lot is as Brian worms his way into their albeit odd family, trying to dig dirt on the other racers in the hopes that his suspicions aren't valid. I will always get the biggest kick out of Brian's commanding officer, Sgt. Tanner (Ted Levine of Silence of the Lambs, Nowhere to Run, Detonator, The Mangler, Mad City, Superman the Animated Series, Monk, Wild Wild West, Evolution and Justice League).   I remember watching this with my brother not trying to riff the film and scream about lotion in the basket. That took some work, let me tell you.

As these sort of story lines go, naturally Brian starts to fall for Mia and the two become close. Dominic isn't thrilled about this at all. He and Brian meet eye-to-eye on this and the issue has been shelved for later. Vince who has had a thing for Mia since they were kids takes it pretty piss poor and jumps Brian.

The two hash it out and Vince is still honked off about the whole chain of events. And hey rap fans! Ja Rule is in this. Yeah I sense no one giving a crap.

Will Brian be able to do his job without compromising his feelings for Mia? Can the cops ever figure out how these thefts are really happening? Will the FBI pay Brian to learn to surf? Whoa.

Okay final thoughts, this is part heist movie and part gear head racer flick. It operates at a good solid pace, the characters are fleshed out so nothing feels like window dressing.

Bottom line is while I have seen this same formula to death (Hence the Point Break reference), it does not diminish the performances that actually come out well.

And while I was never a huge Paul Walker fan, he did touch quite a few souls and was a decent man.

Okay I will be flying out in a while, if you have any thoughts on films I should be looking over, toss me a message on the blog, Facebook page and Twitter.

Rest in Peace, Tristan. I still cannot believe you're gone.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Welcome back readers. I realize that most of my writings have been either Horror or Sci-fi titles so I thought we could hunker down to a more popular franchise brought to us by Marvel Studios.

What do a hybrid, a genetically/cybernetically altered raccoon, a talking tree, the galaxy's deadliest assassin and a raged filled literal minded man have in common? Well not a whole lot.

This is Guardians of the Galaxy.

This Googles Map app sucks, Groot.

Our film opens with the beginnings of a young Peter Quill who loses his mother to cancer, is abducted by aliens and his mother's family never sees or hears of him again. Good call on the taking care of the boy after mom dies. Top notch.

More than 20 years have passed and the boy is an accomplished thief, con artist, trickster and roguishly handsome Star Lord (Chris Pratt of Parks and Recreation, Jurassic World, The Lego Movie, Lego Jurassic World, Lego Dimensions, The Magnificent Seven, Passengers and The Kid), a half human, half something else man who loves his 80s pop culture minutia that baffles the rest of the galaxy.

Contracted to steal a stone of unknown content or power from a remote,dead world. Quill decides to cut out his boss/father figure Yondu (Michael Rooker of Days of Thunder, JFK, Cliffhanger, Mallrats, The Replacement Killers, The Walking Dead and Call of the Dead) out of the deal, make enough scratch to flee from the Ravagers (Intergalactic crime syndicate) and be on his own.

Presenting my large, pulsating ball.

Decidedly pissed, Yondu puts a contract out on Quill and a talking tree and raccoon proceed to planet Xandar to capture Quill alive. Yeah a talking tree known as Groot (Vin Diesel of The Fast and the Furious, Pitch Black, Knockaround Guys, XXX, The Chronicles of Riddick, Fast & Furious and Avengers: Infinity War) and a raccoon with disconcertingly human like hands and unfeasibly large guns known as Rocket (Bradley Cooper of Failure to Launch, Alias, The Midnight Meat Train, The Hangover, The A-Team, Limitless and Avengers: Infinity War).

A group of religious zealots of the Kree empire want the stone too. Led by a fanatic lunatic known as Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, The Program and Driven) loathes his own people striking a treaty with Xandar and will see the whole planet wiped out. Xandar not the Kree home world, Hala. Yes I am that big of a Marvel Comics geek fanboy. What of it??!!

Ronan's underlings were supposed to retrieve this all mighty Maguffin for one of Marvel's nastier villains, Thanos (played by Josh Brolin but not a huge part at this time so move on) and he even aided Ronan by offering his "adopted" daughters, the deadly assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana of Avatar, Star Trek, The Losers, Star Trek Into Darkness, Out of the Furnance and Avengers: Infinity War) and cybernetically enhanced Nebula (Karen Gillan of Doctor Who, Occulus, In a Valley of Violence, The Circle and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), devious and crafty killer in her own right.

Gamora volunteers to acquire the stone and ends up running into Quill, Groot and Rocket.

Less than 12 hours in for their collective charges, the four offer to help one another to escape the Kiln, a Supermax prison full of the dregs of the universe. One such inmate last his wife and daughter to Ronan's crazed killing spree, Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista of WWE Smackdown, WWE Raw, The Man with the Iron Fists, L.A. Slasher, Heist, Marauders and Enter the Warriors Gate)

a literal minded warrior with strength levels of the Hulk and about the moral code of Wolverine.

The five of them escape from prison, nick their gear and head out into the big black for fortune and glory. No time for love, Doctor Jones.

Ronan, the Ravagers and most of the Nova Corps of Xandar are breathing down their necks while the choice must be made. A bunch of loners unite against a common enemy or get blasted into bits across the cold vacuum of space.

Okay first off, I absolutely love this flick. Aside from real fans of the comic book franchise, these characters are positively unknown to the average movie goers. Plus it is delivered is such a fashion, that you can instinctively have emotions for or against the characters. Clever writing, action, Sci-fi and still that comic book formula that fleshes out comic books to the silver screen is so wonderfully done here.

The casting really works and honestly, MCU's Star Lord has a superior backstory than his original comic book counterpart. Tragic yet brought him to adulthood (more or less) far better than his long winded, duller story arc of the comics.

Snaring the likes of Glenn Close, Benico Del Toro and Dijmon Hounsou for bit roles still brings life into these personas. Well crafted for all ages to watch, similar how George Lucas pulled off Star Wars: A New Hope, this film lends itself to easily a follow up movie in 2017.

And yes you should watch its sequel.

Deadliest of eye candy.