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Posted
Friday, April 03, 2009 4:27 PM
| By
Willa Paskin
The four stars of the original film, Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez, all sat out one or both of the series' middle films (2 Fast 2 Furious and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. They missed a real opportunity not calling this new one 4 Fast 4 Furious, me thinks), but they're all back for the latest. Each of these actors had a moment when they were being paraded around Hollywood as a "Next Big Thing." In hindsight, this was silly, since they're not particularly talented and Walker has got the most outrageous SoCal accent this side of Keanu Reeves. Still, for a few years they all received the attention and roles young thespians get when they're on the cusp of making it big. The actor's crazy, long shot fantasy of landing on the A-list almost came true for each of them. But not quite.
Fast & Furious is proof they all know the A-list is out of reach. If they were holding out hope, they wouldn't have returned to a terrible series they once walked away from. But, hey, it pays (a lot) and they have fewer choices these days. Agreeing to make this film means they've more or less accepted their fate, to be some future Jeopardy question ("I'll take little known action heroes for 600, Alex." "The growly voiced star of XXX?") and not the "Next Angelina Jolie." Of course, I shouldn’t feel too bad for them; B-list movie stars still make more than most of us and perhaps they’re perfectly content hacking it up. But they maybe coulda been contenders and, instead, they’re just dreadful.
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