Christ Merc, I'd love to hangout with you in real life dude, you have my exact taste in movies. Only thing I'd love to see more than Rad 2: Thunder Heart is North Shore 2: Back to the Island.
As for me, I loved the new Fast and Furious film, I honestly don't bother with most movies, because I just download stuff for free or netflix blurays, but the Fast series always has me lined up on day one.
I thought the movie was unlike the other 3 for sure. The first film was all about the cars with basically unknown actors of the time.
I think the first has aged the worst of the series, and it comes off a bit cheesy now, hard to believe 2001 could look so dated. I also really hate Rob Cohen as a director.
2 Fast 2 Furious is honestly my favorite of the series, John Singleton went all out and made sure the film didn't take itself too seriously. He knew exactly what kind of film he was trying to make: a glossy dayglow car flick. I love the cheesy jokes and racer stereotypes, gorgeous cars, and Tyrese has way better chemestry with Walker than Diesel. This film honestly never gets old, it's like a bad 80s flick that you watch over and over and know every line.
Tokyo Drift was sort of an east meets west version of the series. I loved the change from drag racing to drifting, nice cars, decent acting from realtive unknowns, and Justin Lin is a very talanted director if you know his work. The lead actor was perfect as a farm-boy hybrid of Diesel and Walker. His accent got a little monotone, but overall I like this film and the cameo by Diesel at the end was a nice touch.
Fast and Furious (the newest) is unlike any of the previous films I think. Justin Lin took what has happened in the past 3 films and made a straight car chase/murder revenge soap opera flick. I was sitting in the theater when there was stretches of 30 mins + with no cars in sight wondering if I was watching a film in the series. I didn't care much for the "tunnel" chase scenes, but overall I think it was better than the first film for sure and on par with Tokyo Drift. It also was a lot more serious than any of the previous films. I think it's a good thing than seeing rehashed ideas from the other 3 films. I loved the ending and I hope we get to see more adventures of Brain O'Connor and Dom in the next 2-3 years.
I would love to see Sean Boswell, Dom, and Brian teaming up in Asia in the next film.
Oh and Merc, I saw a post from you awhile back, that was asking why Brian's name was Brian Earl Spilner in the first film, and O'Connor in the others. It was a fake ID that he was carrying since he was obviously undercover. Don't know if you realized that but if you didn't I just wanted to point out it wasn't a plot hole.
#1> Saw it today, loved it. Of course it wasn't without a few "Bull FUCKING Shit" moments, but overall I felt it was probably the best in the series as far as story goes, but that's not saying much.
#2> In answer to your question, the film takes place after 2 Fast 2 Furious after Brian gets "fully" reinstated as a LEO specializing in deep cover work. Tyrese Gibson was supposed to show up in a cameo as Roman Pierce (rumored for a long time) but I never saw him show up... of course I didn't stick around for the end credits to close, so who knows?
#3> I disagree on the loose ends thing though. Letty is avenged... Dom gets rescued and must then leave the US to avoid the law, living low key, probably forever depending on illegal car racing for income since INTERPOL will more than likely be looking for a wanted man. Naturally he decided to head to Japan and learn a new style of racing and he knew Han was already there.
