Movies In Your Spare Time: My Fast And Furious Experiences

My Experience Watching Fast And Furious Six

Let me start off by saying that I am very sorry in advance if I offend any die-hard Fast and Furious fans.      

When my Film Studies class was assigned the "Movies In Your Spare Time" blog posts, I was really excited.  I mean, how awesome is it that we as students get to choose any movies we want to watch and then basically just write a small post about what we thought of them for people to read?  I instantly tried brain storming up all of the movies I have ever wanted to see.  Of course, there are far, far too many for me to pick from, so I decided I would let somebody else pick for me.  (This is my first mistake.)  I texted my boyfriend and asked what movie I should watch.  My only criteria for him was that I needed to have never seen the movie before.  So of course, he picks one of the Fast and Furious movies since we are always talking about how I have never seen them.  He told me that he wanted me to watch the sixth sequel.  I agreed reluctantly, went home and recorded it.  

If there is something you should know about me as a film viewer, it is that I very seldom like big action movies.  I often times think they are very very poorly written, and that the whole point of the film is to see lots of stuff blow up and then more stuff blow up.  I can honestly say that the only true action movie that I have loved was James Bond: Skyfall.  I am more of the romance, drama type of person.  So as you can imagine, I was not thrilled to hear that I was given Fast and Furious to watch.  Even though I had several preconceptions about what the movie would turn out to be and how I would feel about it, I tried to keep my mind as open as possible.  So on a Thursday night I popped some popcorn and sat down on my basement couch to start the movie.

For anyone that doesn't know, Fast and Furious is a movie franchise about street racing.  They are all Produced by Neil H. Moritz, however there are different directors for most of the movies.  For the sixth sequel, Justin Lin is the director.  Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludicrous and The Rock all star in the franchise.  I was very discouraged when I found out that Vin Diesel and The Rock starred in these movies because I do not think either of them are good actors, however, Paul Walker being in it made up for it a little bit.  If you are interested, I linked the trailer for the sixth movie at the end of the post.  

After I watched the movie, I sat down and thought about all that I had just watched.  I actually had think about how I felt about the movie.  A couple minutes after the movie was over, I was at the point of "Hey... okay... well... that wasn't too too bad".  Then thirty minutes passed and that indifference towards the film turned sour and there was no looking back from there.  I had decided that I very much disliked the movie for two BIG reasons.  The first being that I thought the cheesy writing was awful.  When I say awful, I mean GOD AWFUL.  I thought everything was very cliche and similar to how I expected a big action movie to be written.  The jokes that some of the comic relief characters told were just so so bad.  For example, one of the characters was having trouble using the vending machine in the group of street racers' headquarters.  He proceeded to ask the group which one of the coins he was using was worth a dollar (This particular sequel was meant to take place in England).  Instead of someone in the group answering his question, The Rock decided to just shoot the glass of the vending machine and reply with "Its on the house".  Apparently this was really funny because my boyfriend laughed out loud.  Apparently also, I didn't get the humor in it.  I felt that it was just a predictable, typical The Rock move.  Aside from the bad jokes in the movie, again, I just felt that the writing was very cliche and superficial.  The second reason I did not like the movie is because of the over the top, unrealistic action happening during the car chases and fight scenes.  Everything was just so crazy and in no way possible.  I can appreciate that this is a fictional movie and that things do not need to be proven realistic by physics and what not to be put into the film.  I get that.  But this just was way too much.  There is this one scene in particular where two women from opposing gangs are fighting for a good two minutes, and neither one of them end up with a scratch.  I mean these girls were punching, kicking,  and falling down the stairs, all in the middle of the subway.  I will talk more about this scene later on. So basically the bad writing and the outrageous, impossible situation these poor actors were put in ruined the movie for me.

Despite the movie being horrible, I have to commend the director for the different ways he decided to shoot this film.  I thought all of the different camera angles kept the movie somewhat interesting.  He used such a variety of ways of filming this movie.  Throughout the whole thing, there was a good balance of long clips of film and short clips of film.  When there was a scene with a lot of dialogue where the plot was building, the clips were longer.  When there were fight scenes or driving scenes, the clips got smaller and smaller to convey the intensity of what was going on.  I thought that was really well done.  I think that the overall color of the movie was very cool too.  In most scenes there were bright colors that kept the viewer looking at the screen.  It was just a very fast paced, colorful, and visually entertaining movie.      

Remember that cat fight scene I was talking about earlier?  That wasn't even close to being a cat fight.  These girls were absolutely going at it.  They were throwing punch after punch, kick after kick, and doing everything in their powers to restrain the other woman.  This was all taking place in a subway.  This scene is a great example of the fast paced filming Lin installed in this movie, however it is also another great example of how ridiculous this movie can be at times.  Like I had mentioned, after this crazy scene only one of the girls ends up with any sort of scratch on her, and it is a single cut on her lip.    If you are interested in seeing this scene, I have the link to it below.

Overall, obviously this wasn't one of my favorite movies of all time.  Even though I hated this movie, I do not discourage anyone from seeing it.  If you are into action movies like this, go for it and rent Fast and Furious Six.  You may like it.

Cat Fight 

Trailer

Review Of The Reviews

One of my favorite movies of all time is Jane Eyre.  The movie Jane Eyre is the latest film adaptation of the book by the same title.  This book has to be my all-time favorite book that I have ever read.  I could go on and on about what the book/movie is about, but to save you some time, I will include a link to the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8J6Cjn06kA

I thought this movie was so beautiful.  The gothic, romantic and historical themes of the movie make it very unique and memorable.  I saw this movie for the first time right when it came out in 2011, and yet I have not found another film that is anything like it.

I know that I have a very different taste in movies, so I was very interested in seeing what critics and other viewers thought of the film.  I went on Rotten Tomatoes to see what the "fresh" to "rotten" ratio this movie had.  The link to the Rotten Tomatoes page for Jane Eyre is here: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jane_eyre_2011/

1.  The first review that I saw was by a woman named Connie Ogle from the Miami Herald.  Connie expressed her love for the actors and actresses that were picked to be in the film.  She raves about Michael Fassbender as Mr. Rochester, and believes that there are moments in the film that stuck in her head because of the chemistry that the two actors had.

Obviously, since I love this movie, I could not agree more with Ogle.  I think that the two actors chemistry on film is more than convincing.  That chemistry was very important considering Jane Eyre is  a passionate, forbidden love story.  Here is the link to Connie's review: http://www.miami.com/jane-eyre-pg-13-article

The second review that I saw was by Rafer Guzman from Newsday.  It is safe to say that Guzman hated the film for many different reasons.  He disliked the choice of actors, the style of the film and the writing.  He believes that any normal reviewer would be put to sleep by this movie.  He even compared this adaptation to what the movie would be like if it were actually filmed in 1847 (When Charlotte Bronte's novel came out).

So say the least, I completely disagree with this critic.  I felt that I was on the edge of my seat the whole time while watching the movie.  I am very disappointed that this great film was given such a horrible review.  Here is the link to Guzman's review: http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/movies/jane-eyre-could-literally-be-a-sleeper-1.2778645  

2.  Having seen the film Jane Eyre, I agree with the quote " The actress is hardly plain, but she’ll pass muster by movie standards, and when the two square off there’s no mistaking the fact that she’s his match in every sense but experience. (Ogle 1)" entirely.  The whole point of the movie is to experience the two characters bond with each other.  We as viewers want to see how close they are and how despite their different situations, they are meant to be together (Cheesy, I know.).  The character Jane is a very plain girl in the novel, which is supposed to get the point across even further that it is so out of the ordinary that Mr. Rochester falls in love with her.  According to Ogle, this was obvious in the film.  

3.  If I were never to have seen Jane Eyre and had read both of these opinions of the movie, I think the negative review would be more convincing.  Although this genre of film is one of my favorites, I am a teenager.  I don't have the best attention span in the entire world.  I would probably pass over this movie to avoid being bored out of my mind, like Guzman said I would be.  I think the reason that Guzman's review leaves such an impression is because the fact that he says, "If the motion-picture industry had existed in 1847, the year Charlotte Brontë's novel appeared, it might have produced an adaptation much like this one".  That is such an extreme comparison.  I honestly would say that it is almost borderline shocking.  That quote doesn't get me to want to watch the movie at all! 

I think what makes a review so convincing is voice from the author and a part in the review that will stick in the readers' heads, much like Guzman's comparison.  There has to be an moment in the readers' minds like "Oh my god!" for the review to be effective. 

4.  If I were to make a review of this film, there are a couple things I would make sure that I include and some things that I would make sure to leave out.

The things that I would include in my review are simple. I would make sure I note the great casting in this movie.  Mia Wasikowska has to be the perfect actress to play Jane.  She is a plain, smaller and frail looking woman which completely fits Bronte's description in the novel.  Jane is the type of character that doesn't always say much, but when she does ti is very meaningful.  Wasikowska does a great job of this.  Michael Fassbender, the actor that plays Mr. Rochester, I think is also very fitting for his character.  He has the harsh features that the character requires, as well as the harsh personality.  I think they both do a fantastic job.  If I were to cast a couple to be in this film, I would have picked Fassbender and Wasikowska myself.  Another few things in the film that I would make sure to put into my review would be the historical accurateness, the scenery of the mansion and the mansion grounds, the fitting music and the feeling of "WOW!" after leaving the movie theatre. There really isn't anything like the passion there is in this movie. 

There is only one thing  that I would probably leave out in my review about this movie.  I would leave out the ending of the movie.  No one likes a spoiler.  I also believe that the ending of the novel/film is absolutely perfect, and should not be ruined by a little review.   I truly believe that this is an amazing film, and I do not think there is a single thing in it that I dislike- therefore, I have nothing else I would leave out of the review.  This is a very raw movie, and I think that most people would appreciate that.