11. The Fast and the Furious (2001)
Original: Point Break (1991) Although completely unfounded, it feels like The Fast and the Furious is a far more creatively cynical movie than The Hunger Games is. This one feels right out of the Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer school of making the same movie, just a bit different. Well at least Top Gun was their movie to begin with. Kathryn Bigelows (The Hurt Locker) 1991 surfing-based action film starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze was a modest success. The week of its release the film went straight in at number two, beaten only by Terminator 2: Judgement Day directed by her then husband James Cameron. The film received mostly positive reviews and is regarded favourably today amongst many whove since discovered the film via other means, PC Danny Butterman for one. Fast-forward ten years, its 2001 and a franchise is born, The Fast and the Furious is released. Directed by Rob Cohen (Dragonheart, xXx), who, whilst mostly known for TV had just wrapped on Joshua Jackson (remember him?) vehicle, The Skulls. No matter, The Fast and the Furious isnt often cited when discussing auteur theory. For a modest budget of $38 million, the film took over $200 million worldwide, launching the careers of Paul Walker and Vin Diesel (who vowed never to return for a sequel until all definitive articles were removed from the title). It came at the right time, a time when people still had money and spent it on things like body kits and superfluous extra exhaust pipes cars were in. Well who cares, right? Let the boys have their fetishistic, vapid fun. Well Kathryn Bigelow should and probably did care, it was her movie they had made. Bigelows K-19: The Widowmaker didnt fare too well and it would be another seven years before The Hurt Locker, her stock wasnt so high, meanwhile a bunch of junior Clarksons were driving to the cinema in their droves (not a make of car).
So are Point Break and The Fast and The Furious really that similar, one is about surfing, the other about cars, isnt it? Technically this is true, but remove the surfing/cars and consider the plot synopsis. A young undercover cop infiltrates similarly young criminal gang who like an adrenaline rush. He earns the respect of the gang and falls for one of their own. After a failed attempt to bring down the gang he realizes that his motives are dubious and spoiler alert lets the eventually caught gang leader escape rather than arresting him in an oh-so-homoerotic showdown. Surely someone owes Kathryn Bigelow some money.