2 Fast 2 Forever: The Fast and Furious Podcast

We're kicking off Lap 17 with The Fast and the Furious, and we're joined for tuna, no crust, by Aaron Neuwrith! Aaron shares memories from seeing this movie in theaters in 2001, as well as the Hollywood premiere for the re-release this past summer! We kick off our new segment ("Where the women at?"), talk about whether or not this movie seems "orange," and discuss the screen presence of Dom vs. Br...

We’re closing out Lap 16 with the lap’s final Life in the Fast Lane, and we’ve got a big idea: Director… Hmmm… We begin with the Tokyo Drift Minute where we see Justin Lin’s filmmaking flair on full display, as well as Han’s flowy coolness and his mob-esque “meet and greet” behavior. Then, we Run the VIN to see that Vin’s thinking about directing, but don’t worry: we solve the mystery of what he’s...

We’re closing out our Classic Car Movies #2 lap (aka Kickin’ It Old School) and welcoming in Lap 17 in our mechanic-prescribed Lap 16 Tune-Up. After reflecting on the movies we covered this past lap (where in Joey asks Joe to give quick takes on all the movies we watched), we talk about Intermission, a French short film from 2020 that has fun ties to the Fast franchise. (Thanks again, Austin,...

It's another installment of Life in the Fast Lane! We've only gone thing to say, really: that we... just... love you... We kick off with a really good Tokyo Drift Minute, featuring lots of fun stuff, including our first (only?) NOS in Tokyo Drift! (How much does it cost? We find out.) Then, we Run the VIN to sadly find AI text slop, but also... perhaps the greatest post ever made on Instagram. Aft...

Austin Wolf-Sothern returns to the show to close out the series and talk about Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby! First, we have questions, including: What is a trickbaby? What is the Hansel and Gretel story? After Joey offers a podcast-wide disclaimer, we compare this movie to the first Freeway, talk about this film's problematic elements (including Vincent Gallo), and wonder how much of thi...

It’s a Toretto Summer… and you know what that means… it’s time for Life in the Fast Lane! We kick off with a Tokyo Drift Minute wherein Joe has nothing to do, although it is our first reference to Uncle Kamata, so we talk about him for a while. Is Joey’s urge for Vin Diesel Instagram media literacy finally spreading? Probably not, but we Run the VIN anyway, and wonder: how old are some of these ph...

We’re heading to another cliffhanger as we talk about Fast X with Dr. Dan Hassler-Forest, author of Fast and Furious Franchising: How the Serialized Blockbuster Remade Hollywood! Joey starts things out by asking a tough question: does Dan like these movies? After getting confirmation (yes, yes he does), Dan explains how he could like them even more, why he wrote his book, and what he wan...

It’s time for an installment of Life in the Fast Lane that is jam-packed with news about the Fastiverse, and I am still crying… well, I guess we are. Anyway, we kick off with the Tokyo Drift Minute (#41), which features our first real conversation between Sean and Neela. Then, we start Running the VIN, where Vin Diesel “officially confirms” a new project he’s working on and is “underwhel...

Austin Wolf-Sothern returns to the show after a (very) long absence to talk about Freeway starring Reese Witherspoon! After reminding us of the role he played in establishing one of the main bits of our podcast lore, we talk about his (very apt!) first viewing of this movie. We run through director Matthew Bright's fascinating filmography, discuss the Little Red Riding Hood framework, and try to m...

It's time for Life in the Fast Lane, and we've got a big Kojak-inspired question: Who taught ya how to love, baby? We begin with a Tokyo Drift Minute wherein DK enrages Joe for hitting a little too close to home, and we receive a question for Minute 15. Then: we have thirteen (!) VINs to run, and he’s "hiding in plain sight." Joe continues down his rabbit hole of belief that Vin is listening to us...

"Fan favorite" Garrett Smith returns to the podcast to talk about F9 and to answer a question: is "fan favorite" akin to a title belt that we can take away? After we get his updated rankings and his screentime guess for The Rock in Fast Forever, Joe comes up with a new thing to track for our next lap. We talk about how Gisele's return cheapens Han's arc in F9, whether the extended cuts in Fast & F...

It’s time for another Life in the Fast Lane, and we’re here to share a piece of advice: “You don’t plan a life that rhymes like that.” We enter the backrooms in the Tokyo Drift Minute (#39) to find some Initial D connections, and to wonder what Japanese words Sean has picked up so far as well as what he thinks Morimoto says. We then Run the VIN, which features a couple of very long posts...

We're headed to the surreal post-apocalyptic (?) wasteland of Motorama, and Joey has assembled his co-host Avengers, Mike Manzi and Bob (aka Shreds), for help! After Bob talks about how he discovered this movie -- and the (maybe) genius behind it -- we talk about who the movie is for (unclear) and what it's trying to say about the American Dream (also unclear). We discuss its Twin Peaks vibes and...

It’s time for Life in the Fast Lane and a trip down memory lane, “because tonight, I am six years old again.” (We all are, in a sense.) We begin with a Tokyo Drift Minute in transition (where are we?) wherein Joe explains the rules (and the “rules”) of pachinko, we discuss a pop culture reference that still holds up today (and which leads to a trivia question), and we take a trip down nostalgia la...

We're heading to Samoa again with Scott K, host of The Church of Tarantino and Men of Action podcasts, to talk about Hobbs & Shaw! After talking about why Scott claimed Hobbs & Shaw months ago, we hear his (sort of unusual) rankings. We wind up comparing the franchise (and its characters) to Batman and Robin, Halloween III, and Charles Manson -- each of which inspires exciting possibilities for al...

Happy Fastivus! We celebrate this holiday (named by @ReactionRocket) each year on June 22, which marks the anniversary of the original movie's release to theaters. This year is a monumental Fastivus, given that it's the 25th anniversary! We talk about the future of the franchise, which is brighter than it has been in years, with Fast Forever on the calendar, new TV series in the works, and maybe e...

It's Life in the Fast Lane -- or is it the Slow Lane? -- because "slow is fine" after all, according to Vin Diesel. Anyway... We kick things off with the Tokyo Drift Minute, where we learn all about Paw Man and wonder why Sean isn't thrown out of the bath house in his towel. We then Run the VIN and get the first classic Vin post in more than two months, where we get a big update: "Several works in...

We’re headed back to a very early “car” movie to talk about John Ford’s stagecoach with the help of Tobin Addington! After Joey bullies Joe into voting for the 2 Fast 2 Forever Hall of Fame (and you can, too!), we discuss the historical context of Stagecoach: it’s the movie that legitimized the Western genre and inspired filmmakers for decades to come, and also the movie that turned both John Wayn...

We’ve got a jam-packed Life in the Fast Lane today, including an all-time quote: “in my mind, you, Vin, were born in Cannes.” – Thierry Frémaux – Vin Diesel. First, we start with a Tokyo Drift Minute that could have been filled with so much detail! But, alas. Still, we find some good stuff, Joe gives us a Japanese history lesson, and Joey talks about Wim Wenders’ film Perfect Days. A reminder: vot...

Jordan Polan-Clarke returns to the show to talk about The Fate of the Furious… and the future of the franchise! After we acknowledge the vast shift in the F&F landscape since we last recorded – and remind you that voting is still open for the 2 Fast 2 Forever Hall of Fame – we turn our focus to the Fate of the Furious (and Jordan’s journey through the franchise). Is this the least Fast and Furious...

It’s time for another Life in the Fast Lane, and while the Vinstagram may be quiet, don’t worry: The Rock is here to tell us that We Rock Lavalavas, We Rock Skirts. We start, as always, with the Tokyo Drift minute, which features a very cinematic schoolday from Justin Lin and a question about the timeline of Tokyo Drift: when are we saying it happened? A PSA: voting for the 2 Fast 2 Forever Hall o...

We're headed back to the wasteland for Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior! Our first order of business: making sense of the title variants. After discussing where this fits into the Mad Max chronology, we talk about the many things that Fast and Furious lifted from this movie (including a look back at past Fast & Furious Minute documents!). We explore the lore and fan theories that Mad Max 2 created, adm...

It’s time for Life in the Fast Lane, and we come bearing a good news update: there’s no need for a wellness check. First, though, we see Sean square off against Major Boswell in a sparse Tokyo Drift minute that reminds us of how we watched (and tracked) these minutes when we first started. Then, we talk about some new movie announcements in our orbit, as there’s no real Fast & Furious news. We als...

We’re headed to Abu Dhabi to talk about Furious 7, this time with Derek Lawrence: journalist and author of the upcoming book, A Quarter-Mile at a Time: The Oral History of the Fast & Furious Franchise! After learning about his new book (its format, release date, and what he learned from his interviews), we share a mutual admiration of Vin Diesel’s Instagram and talk about what Fast Forever will lo...

Happy Arbor King Day! As we do every year on Arbor Day, we're celebrating by watching one of the Arbor King's shorts. This year, we're watching Groot's First Steps, which is available to stream in the "I Am Groot" TV series on Disney+. After talking about how we're going to spend our Arbor Day, and how much we love trees, we talk about the similarities between this web series and the 2020 document...