|
I like the F&F movies - but they've made me embarrassed to outwardly like modified cars, especially modified Japanese cars that the movies seem to use a bunch of. (Yes, they did use some American muscle cars as well.)
The movies are entertaining, but just like cop movies may make actual police officers cringe due to how they are portrayed, and spy movies would make actual spies keep their identity a secret for yet another reason, the F&F movies were so bad, for so many reasons, that they make people actually interested in the "import car culture" look bad. I just don't want to be associated with that culture by people who's only insight into it is the F&F movies.
Interestingly enough, the movies have found their spot as they have gone from sequel to sequel. They have become action/adventure movies, instead of trying to pass themselves off as a car movie.
Make no mistake: society views people who street race as tools. They put other people's lives at risk bc they "have something to prove". Go watch Back To The Future (2?) where Marty lines up his pickup for a street race - message to audience: street racing is for tools who are dumbed down to the lowest common denominator among the group.
Luckily F&F movies have swayed away from this in more recent films - though they still keep to the import car culture. Hey, you can be into modifying cars and driving fast without being a total _____ to everyone else on the roads.
Sadly, while the term "rice" was already around before the F&F films, the films just pushed more people into modifying their cars without actually having funds, so yeah, just "race inspired cosmetics". Now you had teens with ugly aftermarket wings and unpainted body kits approaching your modified import that you've spent $5k on stuff no one will see and they think they're just like you.
I could go on and on about cut springs and cheap coil overs, and loud exhausts on stock 100hp engines, etc etc. But you get the idea. Oh yeah, and clueless people seeing your import at a stoplight and wanting to race all the time. I don't do that, leave me alone.
So yeah - where would we be with F&F? Probably a better place.
I feel similar about "Guitar Hero", which some of you might have lived through that fad. I think people can see now what an embarrassment that was to the guitar culture. If not, watch the South Park episode about it. F&F movies are like that to the people who were in the car culture before these movies came out.
|