Question is, should I put this silver screen oversight right when the latest instalment in the full-throttle series, the imaginatively-titled Fast & Furious 6, when it arrives in my nearest multiplex later this month?
It’s not as though I don’t enjoy a cinematic helping or two of power oversteer after all. I revelled in Ronin. My full-throttle tastebuds were sufficiently tickled with both the Taken movies, and while Nicolas Cage’s overacting might have ruined the remake of Gone In Sixty Seconds for me, I wasn’t too bothered because it offered up plenty in the way of automotive pornography. And don’t get me started on the automotive appeal of the Bond films.
Weirdly, though, I’ve always managed to avoid the one current film franchise which doesn’t just feature car chases and carefully-executed drifting, but makes them its raison d’etre. Why? Partly because the automotive actors vying for top billing are predominantly heavily modified Japanese and American actors, and when the first instalment came out way back in 2001 it just didn’t interest a 15-year-old car bore looking longingly at pictures of Triumph Stags and TVRs. It also didn’t help that it starred Vin Diesel, who less than a year later I saw making a complete hash out of being a skater-turns-secret-agent in Xxx. The Fast & Furious films, by extension, I’ve avoided for fear of being a bit crap.
But the new one, even for someone who works for Classic Car Weekly rather than Fast Car, looks faintly promising. For starters, one of its stars is MK1 Escort, the trailer’s packed with shots of gritty bits of London and Jensen Interceptors, and there’s plenty in the way of pointless cinematic explosions.
Naturally, the more cynical cinema buffs among you could reason that the Fast & Furious franchise has got old and boring enough to appeal to a classic car fan, but I’m going to pretend instead it’s me who’s got more, er, street for a film about modified cars and explosions to suddenly look interesting.
I might just be tempted to venture to the nearest multiplex on this one...
