1. The Fast and the Furious
The Fast and the Furious saga is one of the greatest rags-to-riches tales in American history. Over the course of ten long years and five films the series went from being a modest guilty pleasure player at the box office - catering mostly to the tuner car crowd - to being the the best summer blockbuster of 2011. The credit has to go to director Justin Lin. After the abysmal 2 Fast 2 Furious -- the best thing to come out of 2 Fast 2 Furious was the title. Since it came out I exclusively refer to each new installment as x Fast x Furious. Its a lot of fun. I suggest you do the same. -- almost sank the ship he was given the reigns to direct the money grab third installment Tokyo Drift (3 Fast 3 Furious). Surprising to just about everyone (except those who have seen Lins excellent debut film Better Luck Tomorrow) was how competent it was. Not good by any means, but it was better than 2, and it gave us the lovable character Hon (more on him later) who helped qualify it for guilty pleasure status.
Universal Pictures liked what he did so they gave Lin the green light to direct the latest two entries. Fast and Furious (4 Fast 4 Furious) was nothing special - possibly the most mediocre and least awesomely bad of the bunch. What it did manage to do was make tons of money which guaranteed a fifth chapter. This is where The Fast and the Furious series earns its top spot. For anybody who has stuck by these movies and carried the guilty pleasure guilt for ten years, Justin Lin actually makes it pay off. Fast Five (5 Fast 5 Furious) is shockingly self-aware. So aware of itself in fact that it manages to condense every awesomely bad moment of the series into a tight two hour blockbuster that pleases newcomers and old faithful alike. It's a pleasing payoff like no other guilty pleasure franchise has.
If youve never seen a F&F movie before then to you the fifth film was just a big, loud, and dumb version of Oceans Eleven. You had a blast watching Vin Diesel and the especially yoked Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson finally fight each other like you always dreamed - the movie was fun. On the other hand, if youve been shamefully enjoying the franchise all this time Lin does a fantastic job of bring back all of the best characters from each film and playing up their awesomely badness in just the right way. Hon, the lone Tokyo Drift representative, is the greatest payoff of all for the guilty pleasure crowd. Lin is friends with the actor who plays Hon (Sung Kang) and knows the fans love him so he gives him a cameo in 4 and a full on role in 5. The one problem here is this: Hon clearly died in the third film Tokyo Drift. Rather than ignoring this clear continuity breach Lin plays it up to great guilty pleasure effect (because doing things that should be okay is what makes guilty pleasures so fun) by jokingly making Fast and Furious as well as Fast Five prequels to Tokyo Drift. Towards the end of the Fast Five Hon breaks the forth wall in spectacular fashion with the winking line Yeah... Well get there ... Eventually. Its the highest form of fan service, and it feels so good in the best guilty pleasure around. If you love guilty pleasure franchises as much as me then do watch the F&F series all the way through. Its so bad and so good all at the same time. By the end of Fast Five any reservation you had will be gone - replaced by elation for the best guilty pleasure on film. Some franchises like Police Academy just missed this list, but which other franchises did I forget that deserve recognition? Comment below!