Icons Unearthed: Fast & Furious Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Icons Unearthed: Fast & Furious Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman September 23, 2024

It feels like the Icons Unearthed series is starting to really take off, with new Blu-ray releases coming at a fast and furious clip. It was just March of this year that the first production in the series, looking at Star Wars -- one of the preeminent cinema franchises of all time -- first released. Then in July, it was The Simpsons, the long-running TV show that has dominated the small screen landscape now for decades. And, now, here is Icons Unearthed: Fast & Furious, a chronicling of one of cinema's more recent powerhouses, a franchise spanning 10 mainline films (plus a spinoff film) and one of the highest grossing franchises of all time.

I consider myself a fan of the Fast & Furious franchise and count the first film as a rock-solid, go-to piece of entertainment that I can enjoy just about any time (and have enjoyed multiple times over the years). For me, the franchise was never quite as good again as it was out of the gate, but it's definitely held its own and, as this six-part documentary explores, it has quite the story to tell. This documentary begins by exploring the basics, including, first, the original magazine article that would go on to inspire the original film's script (which went through many writers and revisions), Paul Walker's emergence on the scene in The Skulls and his desire to sign on to this project before a script was even presented to him, Vin Disel's casting, and the coming together of additional cast members and story idea for the original film. From there, of course, the remaining five segments look at the larger breadth of the full franchise, including its upping of the ante in razzle dazzle, the ever expanding cast of characters (and the stars who play them), the franchise's long-term success and future prospects, and of course the death of its star, Paul Walker, in the prime of his career and in the middle of the Fast & Furious franchise's mega success.

There’s a lot to cover with this franchise (as there is with every franchise explored in this series), but even in six episodes the series does a fine job of deconstructing the broad array of content that is necessary to tell a complete and entertaining story behind the franchise. While narration is not memorable for being good or bad, the content as it is scripted flows well, especially with the large assortment of interviews and interviewees that open up the portal into the making of an iconic franchise. While there are some obvious big names missing from the collection, including top stars and top filmmakers, there is enough star power (like Tyrese Gibson) and plenty of key behind-the-scenes individuals whose insights make the program work, and maybe even work better apart from the entry of the "big names." There seems to be more emotional and historical freedom here, with nothing seemingly held back. They are honest about the ups and downs, and that is a good part of what makes the six-part series work so well.

But, ultimately, it's that the Fast & Furious franchise is so sprawling that the program holds interest. The franchise is "kind of like a Soap Opera,” one interviewee says early on, and indeed it has everything one would expect from a good Soap (and more!): in screen excitement, off screen drama, high action energy, boundary pushing stunts, innovative technology, crisp storytelling (even when things get more than a little insane), really good acting for the most part, and perhaps most important to the franchise's success, the sense of family that is presented on the screen and the sense of family that is palpable off of it as well. Icons Unearthed does a wonderful job of putting it all together cohesively and entertainingly, making this a necessary companion for all franchise fans.

Icons Unearthed: Fast & Furious Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mill Creek's 1080p Blu-ray release of Icons Unearthed: Fast & Furious delivers a satisfying 1080p image, framed at 1.78:1, that is just in line with the other releases in the series. Here is an image that offers good crisp HD video interview segments which deliver not only fine foundational color on the static backgrounds and participant clothing, but also high yield detail to faces and those same clothes. There's nothing outstanding or really all that visually interesting about what is on display, but viewers should be perfectly satisfied with the basic production quality and the quality of both the source camera and the Blu-ray presentation. There are some clips from the F&F films which lack the pristine clarity of their real film counterparts on Blu-ray (though there does not seem to be much of a difference with some of the lesser original BD releases just from eyeballing the look of things) but clearly they lack anything resembling the work seen on the UHD releases. Likewise, footage form the set and various still photos are of varying quality and nothing but the interviews factors into the overall score. There is no obvious noise and no encode issues of note, either. This is a solidly performing presentation from Universal.

Icons Unearthed: Fast & Furious Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mill Creek releases Icons Unearthed: Fast & Furious to Blu-ray with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. Comprised primarily of narration and interviews with mild support music, the 2.0 configuration suits the program's needs well enough. The spoken word is clear, nicely lifelike, and effortlessly imaged towards the center; there is no sense of dialogue lingering out to the sides. Musical engagement is fine, obviously lacking any sort of dramatic intensity, but the general clarity and, again, sense of spacing are just fine, especially as opposed to the centered dialogue. The sense of stretch to the sides brings a nice sense of overall balance to the program. Of course, there are some clips from the F&F films (and several others) which cannot match, or even approach, the "Real McCoy" 5.1 and DTS:X tracks that accompany the feature films on Blu-ray and UHD, but basic content like score and explosions from the films play well enough in isolation. There's not much to this one, but the film's structure means that "not much" is "more than enough."

Icons Unearthed: Fast & Furious Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Icons Unearthed: Fast & Furious contains bonus interviews on disc two (the entire disc is devoted to bonus content). No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does ship with a non-embossed slipcover.

• Bonus Interview: Tyrese Gibson (1080p, 2:00:25).
• Bonus Interview: Lucas Black (1080p, 1:08:09).
• Bonus Interview: Tip "T.I." Harris (1080p, 35:55).
• Bonus Interview: Roger Corman (1080p, 35:46).
• Bonus Interview: JJ Perry (1080p, 1:22;58).

Icons Unearthed: Fast & Furious Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Icons Unearthed continues to impress with its heartfelt love for film and TV franchises and its in-depth look at what makes each of these Hollywood juggernauts the long-lasting icons that they have been. This season's look at The Fast and the Furious is every bit as good as previous looks at Star Wars and The Simpsons, and with seasons focused on the likes of James Bond, Marvel, and Harry Potter in the pipeline, things are certainly looking up for fans of this excellent retrospective series. This Blu-ray release of Icons Unearthed: Fast & Furious delivers solid video and audio presentations and some lengthy bonus content on disc two. Recommended.