The sleeper hit of 2001, "The Fast and the Furious" makes for an infectious action thriller that will send any respectable home cinema setup into a frenzy.
TECHNICAL FEATURES
Picture Sun-kissed LA settings combined with the usual Columbia TriStar TLC for big releases ensures a trouble free picture transfer.
Sound You want bass? This disc has a muscular bass track that ripples through the room. The accompanying music is mixed to sensational effect with the rear speakers chewing and swapping around the tunes with exciting verve. There's a choice of either a Dolby 5.1 or a DTS 5.1 mix, with the DTS version a little tighter in bass control, but the Dolby mix is no slouch either.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Audio Commentary Plenty of directors provide lousy commentaries but Rob Cohen is one of the few exceptions, chatting with ease about the film. Listening to him, it's easy to suspect that Cohen always knew that he had a hit on his hands, as he explains the choice of bravura styling for the movie that makes it so exciting. He also reveals he traded Roger Corman stock footage so that he could use "The Fast and the Furious" title of Corman's 1954 effort.
Making of Featurette If the opening minute of this featurette doesn't turn you onto watching the movie, then nothing will. Made with a little more style than most such featurettes, it's the usual mix of cast and crew interviews. Do watch out though if you don't like having stunts ruined for you. There is definitely some magic stripping going on here as the behind-the-scenes footage reveals how important moments in the film were achieved.
Racer X - The Article As explained on the DVD, you can read the very article on illegal streetcar racing that inspired the movie. That said, as Cohen explains in his commentary, he didn't see the potential for a movie in the article. It was instead his attendance a week later at an illegal race that fired him into production.
Editing for the MPAA Here you can see what vital frames were cut out of the movie as Cohen explains how they edited the film to gain a vital US PG-13 rating. Short it may be, watching the film maker try to balance artistic integrity with commercial appeal but is a cool featurette idea that would be welcome on many other DVDs.
Trailer? Nope, none here. It's likely that they simply ran out of room on this DVD, given the exceptionally high encoding standards throughout. This is an absolute gem of a DVD, and thoroughly entertaining with no filler in sight.
Region: 2
Chapters: 20
Ratio: 2.35:1 (anamorphic)
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1
Extra Features: Scene selection, animated menus, and English captions for the hearing impaired.
This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-S57 DVD player.
