by Michael Sullivan

Fast & Furious (2009)
Dir. Justin Lin
Starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, and Michelle Rodriguez
MPAA: PG-13

The year 2009 has seen a pattern of action movies producing returns that fall far short of their oversized production budgets. At least, it appeared that way until Monday, April 6^th changed everything. Fast & Furious (2009) the fourth film in the “The Fast and the Furious” series, rounded out its opening weekend with a gross of $72.5M—the biggest opening of 2009 thus far, the biggest April opening of all time, the biggest in the franchise thus far, and the biggest opening for Universal of all time, says Entertainment Weekly. According to the $800M production budget reported by USA Today it looks like it will actually turn a profit!

So why did this happen? What is it about this film that made it so successful?

That’s the exact question film blog Cinematical asked its readers in the article “Why Did YOU Go See ‘Fast & Furious?’” Answers range from “My friend made me go…” to “I had nothing else to do…” to (gasp!) “I enjoy these films.” The general consensus, however, seems to be that viewers see these films as guilty pleasures: Films they know are bad, but which they are willing to pay for simply because of the attractive women and intense chase sequences.

Freshman Christie Lee, a Global Marketing major in the Marshall School of Business, says she decided to see the film because she “loved all the other ones.”

“I just like movies like that,” she continued, citing Fast & Furious with films “like The Italian Job (2003)” as a genre she enjoys. Though she concluded by saying this latest entry was good, she “still [thinks] the third one was better.”

But setting all the he-said/she-said aside, what definitively makes this installment more attractive to viewers than any of its predecessors? The general consensus seems to point to the film’s tagline for answers: “New Model. Original Parts.” The foundation of the franchise’s fan base jumped on board for the original The Fast and the Furious (2001), which netted a staggering $107M profit according to USA Today. This fan base appreciates a film that not only marks Vin Diesel’s return to the series, but promises 107 minutes of action, excitement, and (another gasp!) character development.

That’s right, if you actually care about the saga between Dominic “Dom” Toretto (Diesel) and Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker), know that the film makes some valiant attempt to resolve their drama. This aspect doesn’t make it a good movie—in fact, the plot-heavy sequences are arguably the worst parts—but if the character work actually captivated you in the first film, and if you like car-related action movies and the series’ predecessors, you will probably enjoy Fast & Furious. Hey, 7,520,000 people can’t be wrong, can they?