Bill Simmons and Adam Carolla did a whole 72 minute podcast on it. Apparently, it falls in the so bad it's good category.

As much as that might sound like the obvious answer, if those are really the only elements that have kept the "Fast and the Furious" franchise going, then the movies are still pretty much interchangeable with countless others of the last 10 years. In which case, they'd have trouble staying afloat and visible in a sea of competing films/franchises. There's clearly something else that we're both missing here.

I looked it up, and apparently, it IS just a British thing.

I think it's the false sense of nostalgia to the series at this point. It's been running almost 10 years, that's a pretty simple way to trick people into seeing quality in it.

That and what turned out to be a pretty effective system for the series, being the next two sequels (2Fast2Furious and The Tokyo Drift) were poorly made and dropped many of the lead actors that made the first movie above "God awful" status. By bringing back all the original actors to the 4th, and even adding The Rock to the 5th, they made the fans feel that these HAD to be better than the two that dropped the cast, and that "bringing back the old gang" again, gave it some minor nostalgia points.

If all that's too deep though, we live in America, where a film that consists of tits, ass, cars, guns, and deemed attractive B-list actors is all that people are looking for. Not many film scholars these days, too many of today's teenagers want to get wasted/blazed and watch boobs bounce and shit blow up for two hours.

Not just teenagers. I enjoy that shit too (in moderation). It's just that there are many better options for me than the "Fast and the Furious" franchise. So why choose this one?

Your theory about nostalgia makes sense; it's just that many of the kids seeing "Fast Five" today (the 12- to 18-year olds) are too young to remember the original, and therefore to be nostalgic. When franchises endure for 10+ years, there's usually something cross-generational about them. I can't figure out what it is about this particular franchise, and it certainly isn't cars, hotties, and guns alone. Is it Vin Diesel? Or Paul Walker? (both of whom were pretty much has-beens when "Fast & Furious" came out) Or is it just seeing Vin Diesel and Paul Walker drive fast cars?

That being said, this particular movie actually got decent reviews (68, or "Generally Favorable" on Metacritic). Though I doubt that would make a difference one way or the other.

Any question I ask, Cracked has already figured out. Silly me. Well, here's their take:

http://www.cracked.com/funny-2155-fast-furious/

I was thinking of that very article as this topic came up. haha.

I'm pissed at Cracked, their recent photoplasty contest had the premise "If classic movie scenes were ruined by product placement", and I had a picture ready to submit, and I'd been blocked from the forum. I've posted ONCE and nothing bad. My record has 6 posts, and I've been labeled a "Craption Cheat", so I guess I was hacked or something, especially because I don't even look at craptions. I've gotten no response from the site on it though, which is kinda frustrating.

My picture, even though it's irrelevant to this thread, was Juno on her hamburger phone, holding a box of Trojan Ecstacy condoms. Far from a classic movie, or the best idea, but it's the effort that matters dammit. :mad:

didnt you do an article for them?

Like what?

I think you overestimate how much it takes to grab people's attention.

You are the minority. You are not the lowest common denominator.

I remember seeing The Two Towers with my friend's family. His 8 year old nephew was there and was just as excited to see it as we were. He hadn't read the books, he probably didn't even know they were books to begin with. All he knew is that he was going to see some fantasy violence and magical beasts, story telling motifs that have appealed to the masses since before forever. In this case, yes it is just the cars. You don't need to see the first four movies to understand what's happening in the fifth one.

Yes, this one:
http://www.cracked.com/funny-2939-to...ll-ninja-guns/
God it's hardly even relevant to current topics anymore. :o

Technically it's a topic though, not an article. Usually topics discuss a single issue (like the Fast & Furious one Matt just posted), but I used it to write an article.

Since attempts to get future legitimate articles approved ended in being shot down multiple times, I say to hell with them, you don't need approval to make a topic an article and go against the site format. They haven't deleted it in 3 years so they must not care too much.