Ja Rule

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Mentioned in discussions

The Fast and the Furious · The Rewatchables ·January 22, 2019

Is This Movie Better With…?

Danny Trejo

In the discussion (2)

Approx. transcript time · 00:56:34Read transcript

• Steve Buscemi is disqualified at once for looking sixty years old, though he could have been Jesse's dad getting out of prison for one scene; Danny Trejo versus Michael K. Williams is tough, and the movie arguably needs Michael K. Williams because, other than Ja Rule, it does not have a lot of signature Black performers.
• Danny Trejo feels like he should absolutely be in the movie, imagined working at Toretto's Market in a little paper hat as Dom's uncle who just got out and is rebuilding his life, joining the family by Fast Four; the vote goes to Trejo.

The Fast and the Furious · The Rewatchables ·January 22, 2019

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

The second police sergeant (not Ted Levine)

In the discussion (2)

Approx. transcript time · 00:55:49Read transcript

• Nominees are Ja Rule, whose acting one host insists was actually perfect, and Ted Levine; the running argument over whether Vin Diesel is horrible or great resurfaces, with Find Me Guilty cited in his defense and the retort that he is fun to pray to rather than to make fun of.
• The winner is the other police sergeant, not Ted Levine, who dials it up into almost a parody of every action-movie police sergeant; an impression of his 'if we don't get this' speech is performed and recognized as a character seen many times before.

The Fast and the Furious · The Rewatchables ·January 22, 2019

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Ja Rule

In the discussion (2)

Approx. transcript time · 00:43:58Read transcript

• The award needs someone who was not in the movie much, and both hosts land on Ja Rule at once: his whole part is a running sexual proposition that never pays off and gets him laughed out of the movie; Johnny Tran was the only other possibility considered.
• Part of the appeal is that it is Ja Rule, a big-time star at the time; he and DMX in the 1998 to 2003 range were way bigger than they get credit for now, and a Ja Rule scene was a genuine thrill in the theater; he wins.

The Fast and the Furious · The Rewatchables ·January 22, 2019

Most Rewatchable Scene

Dom's post-race 'you almost had me' speech to Brian; Dom's 'quarter mile at a time' speech

In the discussion (10)

Approx. transcript time · 00:16:04Read transcript

• The plot is summed up as truck heists that Paul Walker's undercover cop first pins on Dom's crew, then on Johnny Tran's, with a twenty-second fake-out on Hector's crew, before circling back to Dom once he has shared a Corona with Vin Diesel; the movie is described as centered on rewatchable scenes with recovery stretches between them.
• Nominees: the first big street race; Dom's quarter-mile-at-a-time speech about his background, with special recognition owed to whoever wrote real dramatic acting for Vin Diesel; his flipping out at the street race when Johnny Tran accuses him of selling him out, with the line 'I never knocked on nobody'; the aborted truck hijacking with Vince dangling from the car; and the last ten minutes.
• One host's most-rewound scene, after ten to fifteen viewings now that it is on Netflix, is the speech after the first race rather than the one in the garage: Dom putting on a show for the crowd, arms out, jibbing and jabbing at Brian to learn what he is made of while letting him know who runs things, the most we see of what Vin Diesel can do as an actor; the clip with 'Granny shifting, not double-clutching like you should' and 'Winning's winning' is played and becomes the sixth nominee.
• Vin Diesel, like The Rock, belongs to everybody because he checks every box; this was the first big-budget action movie where representation felt like a big part of it, with Ja Rule, the Johnny Tran gang and Hector, and that diversity, mirrored in the theater audience, is credited as a reason the franchise became so huge, even though nobody can pin down his background.
• Dom is written with a core and a code rather than as an emotionless tough guy: you don't tell on people, you take care of your family and your car; the hosts run the action-lead lineage from Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson through Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Swayze and Nick Cage and note the leads were almost always white, with Wesley Snipes, Eddie Murphy and Carl Weathers the rare exceptions.
• The eighties were the steroids era, with Stallone and Schwarzenegger making nineteen action movies between them, then Die Hard and Roadhouse moved to smaller guys with a philosophy degree; Vin in this role was the first big guy doing the philosophical stuff, able to give the speech about watching his dad die and also body slam The Rock, and his height remains amorphous, somewhere between 5'4 and 6'4.
• Vin Diesel also has the unintentional comedy Schwarzenegger and Stallone had, where imitating the voice or the walk is funny; one host enjoys making fun of how he drank a Corona and calls the acting good but also terrible, which the other rejects outright.
• The defense is that he is so committed he might believe the Fast and the Furious is real and Dominic Toretto's family is his; both enjoy his weird run with the arms held low, ranked with the girl in Taken among the weirdest runs in recent action movies, though he is reportedly very coordinated and a former background dancer.
• Polled, one host goes with the post-race speech because it shows both Brian and Dom doing their stuff, Brian remarkably charming and peacocking with a little Dion Waiters irrational confidence; a clarification follows that Paul Walker is considered a good actor while Vin Diesel's acting is enjoyed without being called good.
• The other host's favorite is the quarter-mile-at-a-time speech, remembered from the theater as unclear whether it was serious yet amazing; it is recited, called really touching, and the host always sticks around for it when it is on TV.