areaseven

Has anyone noticed how The Fast and the Furious movie franchise has followed the car trends over the past decade? The first film brought about the ricer generation while the second signaled its slow decline. The third one focused mainly on drift machines and less on rice than the first two, but the use of a Mustang on the final race signaled the next trend for the new film - which is American Muscle. What'll they focus on for the next movie - hybrids?

Fast & Furious Relativity Media/One Race Films/Universal Pictures, 2009 Directed by Justin Lin (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift) Based upon characters created by Gary Scott Thompson (Hollow Man, 88 Minutes) Running Time: 107 minutes Rated PG-13 for violence, some HLA and profanity. Cast Vin Diesel (Chris in Boiler Room, Caparzo in Saving Private Ryan) as Dominic Toretto Paul Walker (Hank in Flags of Our Fathers, Skip in Pleasantville) as Brian O'Connor Jordana Brewster (Lucy in D.E.B.S., Ali in Annapolis) as Mia Toretto Michelle Rodriguez (Trudy in Avatar, Rain in Resident Evil) as Letty Ortiz John Ortiz as Campos Laz Alonso as Fenix Rise Gal Gadot (Miss Israel 2004) as Gisele Harabo Don Omar (some Reggaeton singer) as Rico Tego Calderón (some Reggaeton rapper) as Tego T.I. (some rapper) as Troy Sung Kang as Han Brian: "You know, I was thinking about when you blew up your car. You blew up my car too" Dom: "Yeah." Brian: "So now you owe me a 10-second car." Dom: "Is that right?" Synopsis After a successful run at hijacking fuel tanks on the highways of the Dominican Republic, Dominic Toretto leaves his girlfriend Letty and his gang to keep the authorities away from them while he's on the run. One day, in Panama, Dominic receives a phone call from his sister Mia, who tells him that Letty was just murdered. Dominic returns to Los Angeles, California, to find out who murdered Letty. Meanwhile, Brian O'Connor - now an FBI agent, is assigned to track down a notorious drug lord named Antonio Braga. Dominic and Brian once again cross paths when an illegal street racer's name is linked between Braga's operation and Letty's murder. Lowdown I know what you're thinking. There are a lot of questions you have in mind after watching the first three Fast and Furious movies. Brian's an FBI agent? Wasn't he in Miami the last time we saw him? And what's Han doing when he was killed in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift? Well, it seems that Fast & Furious is not just the fourth installment of the multi-million dollar film franchise, it's a complete rewrite of the 2003 disaster 2 Fast 2 Furious. Plus, the events of this film take place years before Tokyo Drift and clearly explains Han's association with Dom. Now that we've got that straightened out, how's the movie, you ask? With the original cast of the first film reuniting for this installment, you'd expect this to be better than the last two films. Unfortunately, it's not as good as Tokyo Drift. (Of course, it's better than 2 Fast 2 Furious, but that film's already been pretty much declared non-canon.) The problem here is that there really isn't much of character interaction outside of Dom and Brian. Letty - who was an integral character in the first film - is killed off all of a sudden after the first five or so minutes of the movie. And while Jordana Brewster is still eye candy on the big screen (is it me, or does she look like a young Demi Moore?), her acting is still flat as it was eight years ago. Israeli supermodel Gal Gadot is also hot, but she doesn't do much, either. Vin Diesel, as always, requires subtitles on his dialogue. And Paul Walker is still the surfer dork that he is. Well, it's a car movie, which doesn't require much acting; so how were the car scenes? As with the previous installments, F&F is loaded with tons of high-performance cars. However, in contrast to the first three films, imports practically take a backseat to American Muscle. There were rumors of the new Nissan GT-R appearing on the film, but guess what? A picture of the GT-R appears on the movie, and that's about it. Meanwhile, Walker wrecks yet another Skyline GT-R R34, while Diesel thrashes a Chevrolet Chevelle before reuniting with the Dodge Charger he wrecked on the first film. The Ford Gran Torino - which gained attention in Clint Eastwood's last film Gran Torino, appears as the villain car. And for this film, Subaru supplied several modified units of their Impreza WRX STi as the new hero car piloted by Walker. The racing and chase scenes, however, are disappointing. Both the first film and Tokyo Drift were exceptional due to their minimal use of CG. This one, however, goes overboard with the CG effects and tons of impossible stunt driving that makes Die Another Day look like Bullitt. Because of all the shaky camera work (even worse than all of the Bourne movies), it's nearly impossible to keep up with the action. Overall, while a much better effort than the second film, Fast & Furious does little to capture the excitement of the first. Still, if you just want a popcorn action flick, it's worth a matinee ticket. Rating: B- Links Official Fast & Furious Homepage Fast & Furious at MySpace References The Internet Movie Database

The best anime would be Figure 17, as it has great animation, an excellent storyline and outstanding characters.

So it has Valks, but you guys forgot to mention that Red Alert 3 also has Kelly Hu, Gina Carano and Gemma Atkinson (no one cares about Jenny McCarthy, anyway).

Wow...I never thought there'd be a car that was uglier than the Aztek. Of course, Fiat learned from this mistake and gave the Multipla a normal-looking front end a few years later, while the Aztek stayed ugly for at least three more years until GM finally came to their senses and axed it.

(WARNING: NSFW!)

Since we have jets and ships in this thread, why not throw in some cars? Again, ugliness need not be seen twice.

Yeah, this scene's been played out thousands of times on YouTube, but it's still better than watching Dragon Ball: Evolution.

My collection isn't much compared to everyone else's. Toys 1/48 Yamato VF-1S Valkyrie + Super and Strike Parts 1/60 Yamato YF-19 1/72 Yamato YF-19 Yamato GN-U Dou VF-11B Thunderbolt 1/100 Bandai VF-25F Messiah Alto Custom 1/144 Doyusha YF-19 1/144 Doyusha YF-21 Revoltech YF-19 Revoltech YF-21 Model Kits 1/72 Hasegawa YF-19 1/72 Hasegawa YF-21 1/72 Bandai VF-19S Blazer Valkyrie 1/72 Bandai VF-25S Messiah Ozma Custom 1/72 Bandai VF-25S Super Messiah Ozma Custom Bandai SDF-1 Macross Storm Attacker Mode (Special Coating Version) I also have a Toynami 1/55 MPC VF-1A lying around just to show people the difference between a Toynami product and a real Valkyrie toy.

About time it got its own series. Wrong era, though, as the manga took place in Vietnam and the Vietnamese were portrayed by cats (hence the title).

Wow...the movie must be so bad that people have stopped talking about it on this thread. BTW, is it worse than Stealth?

Since planes and ships have been included in this thread, here's one to end the discussion:

Sorry, but as ugly as EVA units can be, they can't compare to the Zakrello or the recycled mechs of Resiklo on Ugly Points.

Damn, that's a steal. Just slap an "EET FUK" sticker on it and you'll be James Hetfield. Looks like RedOctane/Activision are wiping the Gibson name off their list as quickly as possible after the whole legal mess that started last year. I always thought you'd be playing with fire if you attempted to do business with Gibson Guitars.

Time to end all debate with this... Yes, it's bad Photoshop work. And no, it's not someone's fan art; it's actually an official wallpaper for a Philippine-made movie.

I really don't know why people diss on the Acguy, especially after one decapitated a Gundam Ground Type in 08th MS Team.

Then that means you haven't seen a lot of other mecha then...

Sorry, Ghost Train, but the Acguy loses to this on Ugly Points: EDIT: Ugliness need not be seen twice.

Ditto with my VF-1A Ben Dixon. I still have it mainly to show friends the difference between an MPC and a real Valkyrie toy (my 1/48 VF-1S or 1/60 YF-19).

Even after three decades, Gaiking is still the single ugliest of all the Super Robots. In the Gundam universe, nothing beats the Zakrello Mobile Armor (or majority of the Gundam Fighters in Mobile Fighter G-Gundam).

Still an underrated classic, next to Time Bandits (review coming soon!).

Wow - the FAST Packs look better in German Gray. Perhaps I'll use the same color scheme on my 1/72 Ozma.

That's totally badass, drifand. Maybe I should've picked up the DX Ozma when I was in Hong Kong. Oh well - I'll just wait for the DX Super Messiah line to appear.