In Theaters: "Fast and Furious" good for fans

Prequel to Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, in theaters now is Fast and Furious, the fourth film in the series. With Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, and a few other original cast members, this latest installment certainly gets immediate points for not going cheap.

The most important question to ask is: How did this one stack up against the others, since it should be assumed that - if you didn't like the first three - you're likely not going to like this one.

The answer is that it compares very well as an action movie, though it is a little darker than the first three both literally and figuratively and so ends up showing off a little less: fewer custom cars and outrageous mods. It fits with the plot, however, which requires "sleeper" cars without much flare.

The acting and circumstances are about as believable as elsewhere in the series, meaning that over-analyzing plot devices is mutually exclusive to enjoying the film. While several of the actors in it have proven their merit elsewhere, Furious is all about well-crafted action, fast cars, and danger around ever corner. In that, it excels, if only in that.

So if you liked the previous films, you'll enjoy Fast and Furious. If you've never seen any of them, this one's not a bad place to start, as you really won't get lost by seeing it first.

It's tough to say whether this is one of those films you really need to see on the big screen. I could see it looking just as good on a nice home theater, since most of the visuals are fairly obvious. Either way, it's good fun and carries on the Fast and Furious torch quite well.

Nine Hollywood Tropes Moviegoers Loathe: Part Nine

Blackup

When the popular regard in mainstream movies toward blacks went from exclusion to sycophancy is unclear. Maybe once the general public collectively understood that black people existed outside of inner-cities and were bound for inclusion in every facet of everyday life (except in Montana).

Whatever the tipping point was, we now see the full-on effects of constant white-on-black ass kissery in film. Ironically, this has done nothing to dissolve racial stereotypes as the most common black prostration is having a black character act as a cool, hard, tough sidekick to the white protagonist.

Remember good ‘ole Paul Walker from 2 Fast, 2 Furious? There wasn’t a thing he could get into that his handy, black sidekick couldn’t get him out of. Dedicated, violent, loud, and shirtless, Tyrese Gibson was the quintessential blackup. If you missed this fine example, check out Death Race where Gibson plays the exact same character for Jason Statham.

Let’s not forget Police Academy, where simpering Steve Guttenberg had not one but two blackups. There was Larvell Jones (comic relief, moral support), and Hightower (just in case things got physical). Any call for blackup was immediately met with arbitrarily loud laughter in Jones’ case, mostly so that white moviegoers could show their colorblindness by respecting how hilarious every black person is, or the inevitable “whooooooaaaa” sound when Hightower stood full height whenever it was time to defend his homeboys (or when aforementioned color blindness was not displayed by less socially astute white people).

But let’s face it: blackup is no better than what Spike Lee called “The Magical Negro” in film. It’s not a tribute, and it really just reinforces moronic racial tropes of no real entertainment or practical value.