We rank them, a quarter-mile at a time.
Universal/courtesy Everett Collection
The family is still going strong.
and the source of this movie’s most delightful action set piece.
(From left to right) Matt Schulze, Michelle Rodriguez, Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Johnny Strong (rear), Jordana Brewster, Rick Yune, Chad Lindberg from ‘The Fast and the Furious’.Credit:Universal/courtesy Everett Collection
No one onscreen even seems to consider that Dom has turned evil.
Gary Grayhas the broadest comedic instincts of anyFastfilmmaker.
Now let’s just get the familia back together.
Charlize Theron and Vin Diesel in ‘The Fate of the Furious’.Universal Pictures
You could call the fourth movie the pilot episode, setting the tone for the bigger-and-better movies that followed.
8.5Los Bandoleros(2009)
Diesel wrote and directed this 20-minute prologue for the fourth film.
What could’ve been a just-for-fans Easter egg is actually a charming, weirdly abstract short.
Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson in ‘Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw’.Daniel Smith/Universal
Letty shows up, and Dom takes her to the beach.
(Call itSlow & Mildly Bemused.)
I dunno, don’t you wishJeremy Rennercould make a 20-minute short film about Hawkeye?D.F.
Vin Diesel in ‘Fast & Furious’.Universal
football jock, Clay, through a construction site.
Once the film moves to Japan,Tokyo Driftpositively soaks in the atmosphere.
(Drifting reallydoeslook cool.)
Michelle Rodriguez and Vin Diesel in ‘Los Bandoleros’.
I say “almost” becauseTokyo Driftlucked out with Sung Kang.
The final action scene hasn’t aged well (whoa, cameraphones!)
butTokyo DriftisFast & Furiousreduced to its bare essentials, lean and mean.
Lucas Black in ‘The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift’.Sidney Baldwin
(InX-Menterms, it’sThe Wolverine.)D.F.
Family, am I right?D.L.
5.Fast & Furious 6(2013)
Let’s be clear.
Jason Momoa in ‘Fast X’.Peter Mountain/Universal Pictures
(Don’t worry; there’s a car to break their fall.)
Likewise, it was a weird decision to banish Brian for an Act 2Fast 4epilogue.
(InHarry Potterterms, this one’sGoblet of Fire: A mess of subplots alongside standout showcase scenes.)
Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez in ‘F9’.Universal Pictures
4.2 Fast 2 Furious(2003)
Controversial opinion:2 Fast 2 Furiousis not bad.
Even more controversial opinion:2 Fast 2 Furiousis pretty okay.
Most controversial opinion of all: The spirit of2 Fast 2 Furiousmakes the later films even better.
Michelle Rodriguez in ‘Fast & Furious 6’.Giles Keyte
CARTER VERONE!D.F.
(Fast 1is toFurious 7asMeet the Beatlesis toThe White Album.)
Everything that can be done gets done twice.
Tyrese Gibson in ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’.Eli Reed
Statham has a hand-to-hand fight with the Rockanda hand-to-hand fight with Diesel.
Cars fly out of a plane and fly off a cliff, through a building, and another building.
In the wrong hands, this could get enervating too much too-muchness, like theTransformersfilms.
Paul Walker in ‘Furious 7’.Universal Pictures
But directorJames Wanbrings a light touch, scattering little moments inside the big scenes.
There’s a proud incoherence toFurious 7.
(InEvil Deadterms, this isEvil Dead 2.)
Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in ‘The Fast and the Furious’.MCA/Courtesy Everett Collection
2.The Fast and the Furious(2001)
The first movie should look so modest in comparison.
Everyone is young and normal-sized.
There are only a few big action scenes, none of which involve tanks or planes or bank vaults.
Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson in ‘Fast Five’.
ButFast 1runs on huge emotions and sky-high ambitions.
Walker plays the role of a nice-guy outsider protagonist, which means everyone else gets to have fun.
Vin Diesel becomes Vin Diesel, playing ex-con Toretto as a broody car-Christ.
1.Fast Five(2011)
The legend.
As Luke Hobbs, Dwayne Johnson is the kind of genuine-equal antagonist most films never bother with.
(Which makes it even more goofy-profound when he agrees to partner up with Dom at the end.)
Star-producer Diesel has never looked bigger or more messianic “THIS IS BRAZIL!”
butFast Fiveis democratic enough to find room for the stars of non-Diesel outings2 FastandTokyo Drift.
They finished their last job; now they can rest.
Until the next last job.D.F.
