Fast6

In honor of Fast & Furious 6 being released on Blu-ray today, we felt the need to rank the “Fast and Furious” films.

The problem? We haven’t seen 6 yet. We’re sorry! We’re busy and stuff.

So, in addition to you disagreeing with our “Fast and Furious” rankings below, we’re going to ask you to tell us where you think the newest film ranks among them, because we’re likely to watch it soon.

The Rankings

1. The Fast and the Furious (2001)

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Following in the footsteps of “Dances with Wolves in Space” (Avatar) and “Dances with Wolves in Japan” (The Last Samurai), the first installment of the “Fast and Furious” movie franchise did a great job of retelling an old story, but doing it with enough skill to be well-liked.

The Fast and the Furious could have just as easily been titled “Point Break with Cars.” Remember Point Break? With Keanu Reeves? Of course you do. Same movie.

Lack of originality aside, we like The Fast and the Furious quite a bit. The drivers shift too much. There’s not enough American muscle. And they don’t pronounce NOS the right way.

But it’s still totally fun. We like racing. And 10-second cars. And pretty girls.

And Point Break!

As is often the case in storytelling, the first one is usually the best.

2. Fast Five (2011)

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Our thirst for American muscle—both classic and modern—is better quenched by Fast Five than any of the previous installments. We also enjoyed watching Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Vin Diesel fight each other, which was infinitely more fun than watching The Tooth Fairy.

3. Fast & Furious (2009)

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Despite our frustration with the way this film is named (in fact, can we all agree that these film names are worse than any other franchise in the history of cinema?) and a few brushes with non-believability, this is a good entry in the franchise. This is the film that brought the crew back together after a pit stop in Japan…

4. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

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We hear a lot of people rip on this movie. And we feel like it gets ripped on so much that it’s actually become a little underrated. Because a bunch of people watching this movie learned something dirt-track racers have known forever—drifting is awesome. If you like the “Fast and the Furious” movies, there’s no good reason not to like this one too.

5. 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)Fast2

A lot of people rip on this movie, too. And it totally deserves it.

This is our least-favorite entry into the “Fast and Furious” franchise, and by least favorite, we mean we’d rather watch chick flicks and films with subtitles than watch this one ever again. It has one redeeming quality. Her name is Eva Mendes. Otherwise, liking this movie earns you a strong ribbing from this corner of the peanut gallery.

Farewell, Paul Walker

The “Fast and Furious” family and its millions of fans lost actor Paul Walker (Brian O’Conner) tragically on Nov. 30 to a car accident in Valencia, CA. Walker, 40, was, by many accounts, a kind, down-to-Earth, and charitable man off-camera.

The world lost one of the good guys too soon. We appreciate his passion for cars and motorsports, but mostly we appreciate all that he gave back. We extend our deepest sympathies to his family, friends, co-workers, and droves of fans.

 

 

Author: Matt Griswold

After a 10-year newspaper journalism career, Matt Griswold spent another decade writing about the automotive aftermarket and motorsports. He was part of the original OnAllCylinders editorial team when it launched in 2012.