focus on five remarkable opuses, for better… and for worse

Almost all of the franchise’s action and racing films are available on Netflix. The opportunity to indulge in a small, non-exhaustive classification.

DSince the start of the school year, Netflix has offered almost complete Fast & Furious, sans F9 (to date) nor the short films (Turbo-Charged Prelude, Los Bandoleros), but with the animated series. To try to sort it out, here is a ranking of the five most remarkable features, from worst to best, where no even number appears, all mediocre – should we deduce an arithmetic rule from this?

Le pire : “Fast & Furious : Tokyo Drift” (2006)

The least profitable episode at the box office, this third part could have sounded the death knell for the franchise. Ordinary chases, naive romance… In the absence of the original characters – except for the final cameo from Vin Diesel – it relies on the less than charismatic Lucas Black, too old for his role as an American high school student in exile in Tokyo. With its cars making turns drift in a small space – the ramps of an elevated parking lot – the film almost borders on the absurd.

Best of Justin Lin: “Fast & Furious 5” (2011)

Director of five feature films out of eleven (3, 4, 5, 6 and 9), Justin Lin deserves an entry in this ranking. With opus 5, the machine Fast & Furious gains power thanks to the arrival of Dwayne Johnson in the cast. The whole thing ends in apotheosis, with one of the most memorable action scenes of the saga: two cars driven at full speed into Rio de Janeiro tow a vault, which demolishes everything in its path. Or a motorized rereading of the heist film, on the verge of a cartoon.

Most powerful: “Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw” (2019)

Signed by ex-stuntman David Leitch, this unique spin-off – in the meantime Hobbs & Reyes – and ninth feature of the franchise brings together the two best antagonists of the previous films (Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham). To make them face a genetically augmented man (Idris Elba), a supervillain who seems to come out of a comic book. The surreal action – a tow truck against a combat helicopter – is therefore at the service of a “meta” scenario. Or how the Universal saga stands up to Disney-Marvel and Warner-DC productions.

The one to rehabilitate first: “Fast & Furious” (2001)

In this solid thriller with a classic framework, directed by the now veteran Rob Cohen, illegal street racing serves as a backdrop. What matters is the infiltration of a police officer (Paul Walker) among a group of truck robbers. With hindsight, this first essay takes on the appearance of an ethnographic document on period fashion (tuned cars, spectators in short outfits). Sequences less macho than they seem, where the filmmaker does not rub his eyes like his successors – Jordana Brewster, in a bathroom, throws her shirt at the camera.

Best: “Fast & Furious 7” (2015)

At the end of November 2013, while episode 7 was being filmed, actor Paul Walker died in a road accident. Drama compels James Wan (Insidious, Conjuring), reluctantly, to sign a new ghost film – certain scenes are filmed with the brothers of the deceased. You have to see the hero playing with destiny (jumping at the last minute from a bus that is sliding towards a precipice), then ultimately leaving to “retire” to devote himself to his family. A heartbreaking last car trip, where the paths of Walker and the rest of the gang diverge.