Reviews

Okay, first off, before I get to reviewing, I've done my research. Duane "Dog" Chapman was arrested and convicted for being an accessory to murder-1, that is, he was present and didn't stop another member of the gang he was then a member of, the Devil's Disciples, from murdering that person. He was in for 5 years, and got out on probation after helping stop a prison break. To the poster whom said that he's not a legal bounty hunter, all you did was post the laws in your particular state, I'm guessing, on what qualifications you need to be a bounty hunter. To the person who said that bounty hunters are supposed to kill... no. Too much Star Wars for you. Boba Fett's line of work was more along the lines of "Assassin". In the real world, a bounty hunter is hired by a bail bondsman to go collect criminals who fail to appear in court. In some cases, they're considered to be law enforcement officials, which means that they get full co-operation from local law enforcement. As for another poster who asked about him going after Osama, he's been quoted as saying he would go for him if the US Government would put him on the case.

Now, as for the illegal capture, he went to Mexico to capture a rapist, and since bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico, he broke a law, but wouldn't catching a rapist be worth it? I think so.

Anyway, this show follows the work of Dog and his family. Wife by common law marriage, Beth, sons Leland and Duane Lee (as of season 2), and "brother" Tim (there's no actual relation), and the Dog himself go out and apprehend fugitives. He's very successful, probably due to the camera not showing when he's missed his marks. I think that many episodes show a great insight into the flaws of the criminal justice system, because they do exist. It's really a good show, if you like the sort of real-life action that comes from bounty hunting and catching fugitives.

In a 2-day time span, I saw this movie and The Break-up, and I'm glad this one the vote for the one we saw first, even though I voted against it. I had lost faith in the series after 2 fast 2 furious, and was surprised that this one didn't take on the moniker 3 3rast 3 3rurious. The change of protagonist was a nice change, though the acting for his part could have been done better, and while the accent didn't get to me much, I found it rather amusing that most of the Asian actors had better enunciation than this one of the handful of Americans in the film.

I went into this film expecting action, and action I received. From the first thrilling race against Zachery Ty Bryan in his daddy's Viper, to the final showdown against the very hate-able antagonist, and everything in between. I, like others, saw the first race, and thought "Okay, they can't POSSIBLY get any better than that!" and was proved wrong as the protagonist comically smashed up a lent car.

Speaking of smashed up cars, this had to be some of the best driving stunt work I've seen in a great long while. While a lot of the work was obviously CG, it was integrated so well that I barely noticed, and I'm working towards a B.A in Animation, so I have a better trained eye than most in noticing that sort of thing. My only major gripe was the midnight drift with the girl. It was extraneous, and, in my opinion, could have been cut. There are better ways for character development.

I got something I didn't expect out of this movie as well. This elusive thing to most action flicks that we like to call "Plot". While some of it was strained, I think that, considering the genre, they managed to put together a great plot. The idea was that the protagonist was an outcast automotive engineering student, who never fit in, except for racing. In his new So.Cal. Public School, complete with metal detectors, he gets into a squabble with the local football star, Zachary Ty Bryan over what all teenage boys fight over, a girl. Predictably, a race is chosen to decide this. After much destruction of property, he wins the race, but loses as his car flips, in what I think is one of the best uses of slow-mo since The Matrix.

Afterwards, at the police precinct, he is in big trouble, and his mother bails him out in *ahem* unknown ways. His mother, presumably tired of moving every time her son gets into trouble (it's never said, but I believe it's a reasonable assumption), he is sent to Tokyo to live with his estranged Navy father. It is there that he gets involved in the underground world of Drifting, and proceeds to wreck up cars and get babes, and everything else. He manages to get into another fight about another girl, but this time with a guy who's Yakuza (Japanese mob for those less educated or who haven't seen this movie), or at least has Yakuza ties, and thus is more dangerous to mess with. This guy, known only as DK, becomes the source for much strife (obviously, as he's the main antagonist), eventually leading to the final race, involving my favorite car ever. I'm trying my best to leave out big spoilers here, so I won't give away the very end of it.

All in all, this movie was an excellent film to see with friends. The adrenaline rush was so great through the movie, and the cars, as a side note, weren't the outrageous things from the first two. No neon under glow, and spoilers half the size of the car (maybe these tuner kids will stop blocking my view with them now), and the cars with spoilers actually needed spoilers (Honda Civics with spoilers always make me laugh). One thing to remember, though, is that it is an action movie, after all is said and done. It wasn't really created to portray a message, or do anything other than entertain. If you look too deep at this movie, you will be invariably disappointed. There's not much beyond face value to the movie, but it will be enjoyable if you take it as such.

Over a 2-day span, I went to go see this, and The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift. There was a 2-3 vote for Tokyo Drift over this movie, and in this case the majority was right. The storyline was overly cliché'd, and had far too many big coincidences. The acting, which some say was great, I found horrible. As usual, I found Vaughn and Aniston playing their usual characters. Aniston reminded me of "Bruce Almighty" and Vaughn reminded me horribly of my least favorite scenes of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith". The saving grace of this film was Vincent D'Onofrio, a superb actor, who pulled off his role extraordinarily well.

As for the plot... it's pretty much the title. But as for billing it as a comedy... It was funny, at points, and I'll admit that as a comedian, Vaughn shines, where some funny moments got me to look back at the screen, but the overall flow of the movie was lacking, and a good plot wouldn't need funny jokes to get my attention back. The ending actually surprised me, however, because it was not your typical romantic comedy ending. However, seeing as I wouldn't classify this as a "comedy" for most intents and purposes, that makes sense.

All in all, the mostly sub-par acting and the yawn-worthy script left much to be desired by this over-hyped summer film.