Synopsis:
It all began with a magazine article that exposed the world of illegal drag racing in cities across America. Creatives at Universal would make a modest action film featuring drag racing, car modification – and of course, family – from its pages. What should have been a one-off popcorn summer flick followed by a straight-to-video sequel became one of the largest film franchises of all time.
What We Thought:
As a fan of the Fast & the Furious franchise I totally dug Icons Unearthed: Fast & Furious. This is the third Icons Unearthed collection I’ve gotten from Mill Creek Entertainment (Star Wars and The Simpsons being the previous two) and I can’t wait to get more. So far they are three for three on these releases with all 3 being franchises I rank in my top 10 favorites franchises.
What I love about these, especially this one, is that it’s like watching hours of bonus features in one collection. I love bonus features like making of and behind-the-scenes and that’s what these are. This one is six episodes breaking down how the series started and goes through F9. Fast X is mentioned, but F9 is the last movie it goes into detail about.
If you are like me and are a fan you’ve clearly thought about how a series that started off about an undercover cop getting involved in illegal street racing ends up with 11 movies (if you include Hobbs & Shaw) that finds them racing on ice above a submarine and also in space. Well these six episodes explains it all and it’s very cool.
The first episode discusses how it all began. A reporter wanted his Honda to be better and dives into the world of modifications and street racing and writes a story about it. Someone reads the story and thinks it would be a cool movie. As the concept gets flushed out and writer after writer comes in trying to figure out how to turn a short non-fiction magazine story into a feature film, eventually they decide to Point Break it and add an undercover agent into the mix ala Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves in Point Break). They eventually cast Paul Walker and Vin Diesel and they were off to the races (pun intended).
Of course the first movie ends up a surprise hit so you gotta do a sequel(s). The next episodes get into 2 Fast 2 Furious and The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift. It dives into how Vin Diesel wasn’t available so they moved the story out of California and into Florida bringing back Paul Walker’s Brian character and adding Tyrese Gibson. It did well, but with a higher budget didn’t turn as big of a profit as the first film. For the third they send it overseas with a new cast and made what could have been something straight to video, but it did get a theatrical release. Despite being called Tokyo Drift and the story being overseas, most of the film was actually shot in the US.
The next episodes are about going back to the original well and getting the band back together. Fast & Furious (the fourth film) does extremely well and its time to go bigger and better. If you’ve seen Fast Five you know what I mean. They bring in The Rock and other cast members and the franchise takes its first major turn. No longer just about street racing, Fast Five (probably the best film in the franchise) is the one with the vault being driven through the city. This episode is awesome because it shows how the vault actually had a driver inside it with an engine and wheels to help make the scene work. That is one thing this release shows, despite how over the top and ridiculous a lot of the movies were, they still tried to do as much as possible with practical effects.
If you are a fan of the films you know what’s coming with Fast & Furious 6 and Furious 7, the real life death of Paul Walker. As the films got bigger and bigger, the death of Paul Walker greatly effected everyone involved and the production of the movies. Furious 7 had to be rewritten and shooting changed with Paul’s death. His character Brian was the main character for almost every film (he doesn’t appear in Tokyo Drift) and the heart of the franchise. Editors, cast members, crew members talk about losing Paul and it’s very difficult to watch. They loved the guy and how great of a person he was. His brothers stepped up to double for him in scenes they still needed “Brian” in and the ending of Furious 7 had to be changed to have the proper send off for Paul.
With Paul Walker gone, the films took their second major turn, into utter ridiculousness. F8 had them trying to outrun a submarine and F9 saw them in a Pontiac Fiero in space. Even as a fan even I can admit they aren’t great films. Fast X is even worse, but this Blu-ray set doesn’t get into it. You can tell those talking about the films are secretly admitting they might have jumped the shark with these movies.
Icons Unearthed: Fast & Furious is a must own for Fast & Furious fans. There are a ton of cool behind-the-scenes stories and seeing how they made a lot of the stunts happen is awesome as well. Despite being ludicrous (not the actor who’s in the films) so many of the stunts at least have some practical effects in them with VFX added in post. The bonus features with interviews of cast members are fun too. The only thing I wish it got into more was the power dynamic between Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson. It’s well known they don’t like each other and it talks about how they clashed on set, but no one really explains why.
The Nerds Templar 