PP’s Movie Review - The OG Fast and the Furious 1

Author: The Passenger Princess

Hello hello, it’s been a little while but here at Moonlight Mango, we are a team, more importantly a family to all those who love car culture. Today, this post was submitted by the Passenger Princess. Originally from North Carolina, Passenger Princess is still new to the car scene, but not new to quality! Hope you enjoy her take on one of the classics. Don’t forget to follow her on IG and FB as @moonlight_mango_pp.

This is my first time watching the first movie of the franchise: The Fast and the Furious (2001). I’ve seen most of the films in this franchise, but now I’m gonna go back and watch them in order so I have a better understanding of the storyline. And yes, there will be spoilers since this movie is over 25 years old. Going off memory, the later installments seemed to be more action-packed & comedic than this first film. One scene that I found comedic was when Ja Rule’s character Edwin got rejected by that woman who offered to hookup with him if he won the race that took place in the beginning. Once he didn’t, she basically told him to get the hell out of her face. Another funny scene was when Vince and Brian (who were both romantically involved with Mia) started fighting each other after Mia made Brian a tuna sandwich. Once they start fighting, Dom asks Mia, “What did you put in that sandwich?” Other than that, the film was more serious and I understand why to a certain extent. This is technically a cop movie where the goal is to catch the criminals for a serious crime. However, this is not your typical cop movie. You don’t see too many cop movies where the cop has to go undercover as a street racer. And I didn’t expect Dom & his crew to actually be the bad guys that Brian was supposed to apprehend. In the later movies they’re portrayed as the good guys, so I assumed that’s how they were from the start.  I guess Brian being able to see the good in Dom and his feelings for Mia led to him letting Dom escape at the end of the movie.

Another thing that set the serious tone of the movie was the action. There were at least three times when the crew members should have lost their lives, but somehow managed to survive and only one died and another was critically injured by the end of the movie. I don’t understand how Dom and Brian got into two different shootouts and drove away without getting hit at least once. Or how both Dom and Letty had their cars flipped over but still escaped life threatening injuries. I knew they wouldn’t die since I’ll see them again in the sequels, but I was still very worried about their safety as those scenes were playing out. Once I saw that they made it out with just a scratch I thought that was so ridiculous. So it seems like those scenes were supposed to come off dramatic and serious but ended up being somewhat funny due to the unrealistic survival of the near-death experiences.

That Lime Green 🤤

That lime green, on fire 🔥

Now I want to discuss the two cars that stood out to me in this film. I’m not much of a car enthusiast, so I’ll just focus on the appearance rather than the specs, performance, etc.  The first car that stood out to me was Brian’s 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse. I think it was very smart to feature this car as Brian’s first race car because as soon as you see it, it immediately catches your attention. The first thing I noticed was the neon green paint job with the blue bird decal. To me, any car with my favorite shade of green is stunning. However, this one was so stunning to the point where it blew up in the most beautiful flames once the rival crew got their way with it. All jokes aside, I’m glad that car wasn’t actually destroyed and is still here today in the Holly Star Cars Museum in Tennessee. 

Mia’s Integra.

The second was the 1994 Acura Integra GS-R driven by Mia. She used this car to impress Brian with her driving skills after they went on a date. I loved the warm, baby blue color with the bird lady decal. If I was an adult in the early 2000s and I had to choose a sports car to use for a date, this would be the one I’d choose. I wouldn’t be speeding to impress my date but I can picture myself in this car with me and my date talking and smelling that amazing scent of the Pink Sinnamon air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror as we cruise down the street. 

Have you tried our Pink Sinnamon? They’ve been boosted just like Dom’s RX-7. Open a pack and they hit harder than your exhaust kick back!

Overall, I thought this first film was alright. I would give it a 6/10, respectfully. As previously stated, it has a more serious tone with some funny scenes, but there are other parts that I enjoyed. I liked watching the high speed chases because it makes you feel as if you’re in the car with them. It’ll feel scary but thrilling. Also I love how the movie showed different races & ethnicities all coming together to participate in street racing. It shows that the love of cars and racing doesn’t belong to just one group. It’s for anybody who shares that same joy. I’m sure car nerds found many more reasons to love this movie given all the different models showcased in the races. I’m curious to see what will happen in the next movie. Will Brian get fired for letting Dom go? Will Dom end up working out a deal with the authorities? What new kind of trouble will the crew get into? It should only go up from here.