Frames and Fools: Film, Filmmakers, and Foolishness

It’s time for a slice in ‘Mystic Pizza’ (1988). We made it through the Fast & Furious franchise and now it’s time to slow it down, eat some ‘za, and drool over Vincent D’Onofrio, who’s lookin like a real slice himself. ‘Mystic Pizza’ follows three young women (Julia Roberts, Annabeth Gish, and Lili Taylor) on the cusp of adulthood in a small seaside town. They all work at the local joint (Mystic Pizza), where they sling slices while dreaming about their futures. It’s an earnest and hilarious movie that spends the time getting to know each character in a way that will make you laugh, cry, and really want some damn pizza. Seriously though, don’t watch this movie hungry or the Ratatouille scene will wreck you. The movie is packed full of 80’s goodness, from the big hair to the shameless saxophone and synth soundtrack. Plenty of cute houses, outfits, cars, and people. What are you waiting for? Order up!

‘Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw’ (2019) has a bit of everything and maybe a bit too much of Hobbs & Shaw. We honestly enjoyed ourselves much more than we thought we would after getting reeeal tired of the Rock taking up all the oxygen in F8. This is a whole different thing, though. It’s as if the Rock (and Statham, though we didn’t mind him so much) is a little muscular goldfish that got too big for the tank he was in and just kept splashing around, jumping out, upsetting the other fish, and messing with the cute lil decorations that were so thoughtfully placed in the tank before it was decided that, yeah, okay, maybe we just need to put this fish in an entirely different tank. Also we gotta bring in Idris Elba and Vanessa Kirby because we need more beautiful and talented people to punch each other. The music is great, the action and stunts are excellent, the sci-fi super soldier stuff is fun; it’s kinda a blast. The Rock and Jason Statham have about eight too many scenes where they growl at each other and use the same insults they’ve been using for three movies now, which takes away time that could have been spent on Idris Elba, whose acting honestly lifts this endeavor to another level. More Idris, please. How about we get ‘Brixton & Shaw’ next? Or Brixton just gets to jump back to the main saga? Please? There’s still time...

We’ve made it (basically) to the end. ‘The Fate of the Furious’ (2017) is just as big and brash as the rest of the series, but a new director, a bit more cgi, and no Brian means that it feels a little different. It’s by no means a bad movie nor is it the worst of the franchise, but a couple cracks are showing. The Rock, once a welcome and cheesy addition to the team (not the family, mind you), is beginning to chew the scenery and pull focus. A movie that could have placed Lettie at the center for a much more emotionally resonant story instead bounces around. The villain, played effectively by Charlize Theron, is given no motivation other than a vague throwaway line that really doesn’t justify hijacking a nuclear-armed submarine. Elena is literally in a box for the entire movie. There are still fun moments, but this film is exemplified by its barbecue scene: overcrowded, weirdly computer generated, and just generally a little lost. Friend, costume designer, and unpublished novelist Chad (@chadhatter) joins us to discuss the fate of this fast and furious franchise.

In a way, it’s all led to this. ‘Furious 7’ (2015) feels like a culmination, the main event, our gold standard. At this point in the series we’re utterly attached to Dom, Brian, and the rest of the family. We’ve thrilled at the races, gasped at the outrageous stunts, and smiled at the undeniable warmth of many a family barbecue. The series itself has found its footing, evolving from street racing crime movies toward all-out car action with a beating heart. We’ve come a long way from stealing DVD players off of trucks in the California desert. Now we’re dragging 9000-pound safes through Rio, taking on entire cartels, dueling with ex-military master thieves in custom super cars, dropping out of planes, jumping between vehicles, and we’re doing it all as an established team. It’s been a hell of a ride. This film marked the departure of the charisma machine himself, Paul Walker, whose presence in the series elevated a fun franchise into something that kept us coming back. Tears, bullets, and gasoline flow in this ridiculously epic ride, and this week our cinematographer buddy Nathaniel Regier joins us as we get Furious. 

Cheerio and welcome to London, bruv! In ‘Fast & Furious 6’ (2013) our fearless family is living the good life after their adventure in Brazil, but Agent Hobbes is back with some shocking news and the proposition of another team-up. Dom and the crew are faced with an uncanny mirror version of themselves when a highly skilled team of fast-driving thieves attempt to assemble a fairly standard MacGuffin weapon that has the potential to really wreck stuff. It’s less heist and more Dark Knight meets action-comedy, but it’s all Fast & Furious. More cars, more crazy stunts, a couple solid race sequences, Brian freaking out, and flip cars. No, we’re not gonna explain what that means cuz it’s really flippin cool and you gotta see it for yourself. Our buddy Nathan joins us this week as we leap insane distances between moving vehicles. It’s about family, baby!

They played it safe with ‘Fast Five’ (2011), and by that we mean they pulled out the stops and vaulted the franchise into full action car heist extravaganza. For this one we head down to Rio where a special team has been assembled to pull off a big job. Everybody’s back for the ride and we’re gonna need every piece of this team to outrun the Rock and his drenched dome. The stakes have never been higher, the muscles never bigger, the stunts never this insane. How do you beat an entire cartel and evade the United States government while also getting away with $100 million? By driving real fast, of course.

We’re on to #4 with ‘Fast & Furious’ (2009)! It’s the franchise that won’t quit and this week’s entry is yet another course correction. We loved Tokyo Drift but it didn’t drift its way to massive profits, so Dominic Toretto is back, baby. Now he’s got Sherlock vision, which comes in handy when a loved one dies while driving undercover for a drug cartel. He’s forced to return to the USA despite being wanted for the first film’s escapades, and his mission of vengeance lines up with the FBI’s investigation with the very same cartel! What a coincidence! Paul Walker is back as Brian, who begins this movie with an uncharacteristic foot chase in a suit. Corporate life is killing the once-legendary racer’s spirit, and being reunited with Dom brings out the outlaw side of him that was mysteriously lost between films 2 and 4. There’s some cool car stuff, the prerequisite race scene, and a Hummer full of $60 million of heroin. Yum! Drive with us as we get Fast & Furious.

We’re going much faster than fifty in our fiftieth episode—it’s ‘Tokyo Drift’ (2006)! Technically the title is ‘The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift’ (2006), but we’re moving too fast for all that. Matt is back and also joining us is car aficionado Ben! That’s right, this time there’s actual background knowledge in the mix! Think of it as intellectual nitrous for our usual hopped-up import of a silly conversation. This week we’re rippin the e-brake and sending it sideways as we continue our ongoing investigation of perhaps the most fun franchise that cinema has been pummeled by in the past two decades. This installment goes international, introducing us to the suspiciously old-looking, supposedly seventeen year old Sean (Lucas Black), whose life skids off the road and lands him in Tokyo, where he has to learn an entirely new style of driving if he wants to survive. Do we enjoy his character? Not particularly! Is this movie incredibly fun to watch? Absolutely! It’s cool, it’s a blast, it’s a classic sleepover dvd. Join us as we burn through countless sets of tires and laugh our driftin’ asses off.

Miami, baby! We’re going ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’ (2002) this week, joined again by Matt. There’s gonna be jet skis, palm trees, and enough nitrous to make the world get all streaky. Brian (Paul Walker) is on the lam after letting Dominic (Vin Diesel) run at the end of the last movie, landing his crazy eyes and pure charisma in the Florida street racing scene. He enlists the help of his buddy Roman (Tyrese Gibson) to infiltrate the villain’s operation. The details don’t matter that much because look at all those cars! Anyway, they’re running some kind of money or drugs and look at all those cars! Eva Mendes is here doing something but look at all those cars! Not to ruin anything but wow look at all those cars...

We record this show a quarter mile at a time. ‘The Fast The Furious’ (2001) is many things, from macho car-obsessed eye-feast to an incredibly of-its-time, no-holds-barred intro to what would become a massive and hugely popular mega-franchise. Are we using too many hyphens? It’s a high-octane, family-focused joyride on the mean streets of LA, with enough expensive metal to make Andrew Carnegie blush. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker are the first of many in a stacked cast whose pure charisma drives these movies beyond what they may seem at first glance. Matt, our resident Fast franchise expert and longtime friend, joins us for this and subsequent FFFF episodes (that’s Frames and Fools and Fast and Furious). Shift into first like you mean it and pop off the line for FF1!