1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 Furious. Ranking the Fast and Furious Films

I love the Fast & Furious franchise.  Each installment has its own personality, and I’m a fan of almost every character that’s been introduced since 2001. It’s been fun to watch the series evolve, adapt, and grow into an international juggernaut with an international cast. The first film climaxed with an angry trucker defeating the crew, while Fast Six finished with a car driving through an exploding cargo plane. The jobs have ranged  from minor heist to “mission in freaking sanity.” We’ve watched Fast and the Furious evolve from a Point Break ripoff to full-fledged worldwide phenomenon.

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The Fast movies are like the James Bond films because everybody has their personal favorite. Ranking the films was really hard because I like all of them. Imagine you are ranking Girl Scout cookies. I would eat all of them but Samoas are my favorite. It doesn’t mean I wouldn’t crush some Thin Mints or Tagalongs. If I was at a vending machine I would have a hard time picking one of them to watch.

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6. Fast and the Furious – Two tunnel chases, something about drug smuggling and other stuff. I like the film and it brought Walker and Vin back into the fold but it doesn’t have the magic of the other films. The best thing about FF is that it introduced Gisele (Gal Gadot) and brought Han (Sung Kang) back from the dead. Justin Lin used this as a springboard to make the amazing Fast Five. To that we owe Fast & Furious a debt.

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5. Fast Six – It throws in the kitchen sink then blows it up with a tank. Then, it rains kitchen sinks onto the tank and somehow Vin Diesel still manages to catch a free falling Michelle Rodriguez. I love Fast Six but it lives and dies by the adage “much more is better.” I love the car work Paul Walker does and listening to Tyrese asking for change so he can buy food from a vending machine always cracks me up. Fast Six is much like the runway at the end. It is too long and excessive.

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4. The Fast and the Furious – I would rank the first entry higher but it is a Point Break ripoff that was better than it had any right to be. It opened the door to the world and wasn’t afraid to cast an eclectic crew that would grow with the films. The best thing about Fast is that it introduced “I live my life a quarter-mile at a time” into the lexicon.

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3. Tokyo Drift – Tokyo Drift did one thing incredibly right. It introduced the world to Han. Han is my favorite Fast character and I was happy Sung Kang got a big role because I thought he was really cool in Better Luck Tomorrow. Justin Lin expanded the world and Roger Ebert had this to say about it:

In “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” he takes an established franchise and makes it surprisingly fresh and intriguing. The movie is not exactly “Shogun” when it comes to the subject of an American in Japan. But it’s more observant than we expect, and uses its Japanese locations to make the story about something more than fast cars.

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2. Fast Five – Fast Five is next level awesome. It plays like Ocean’s 11 met all the Fast films and they spawned an amazing hybrid. Fast Five is funny, fast, fresh and nobody dies when a bus flips 12 times. Justin Lin was working on all cylinders and he managed to introduce Hobbs (The Rock), focus on family and pull off the coolest scene in all of the Fast films.

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1. 2 Fast 2 Furious – While Vin was off making A Man Apart, (Totally not family) Paul Walker teamed up with Tyrese and they robbed a smarmy drug dealer. The stakes were low, the crime cheeky and the chemistry was amazing. Paul Walker, Eva Mendes, Tyrese and Ludacris fully embraced the world and John Singleton did a solid job creating a dynamic duo. In a series that is all about family Paul Walker and Tyrese formed a brotherhood that

could not be matched. The movie is pure popcorn fun that kept the series relevant and brought in future crew members who do nothing but steal the show. Also, the ending dialogue might be the greatest lines ever spoken on film.

Brian O’Connor: Pockets ain’t empty, cuz. Roman Pearce: And we ain’t hungry no more either, brah.

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