The 8th film in The Fast and The Furious franchise hit cinemas this week so it’s time for me to rank all the films about Dom and the family. As usual this is about my personal favourites, so it is completely opinion based. If you know me, then you’ll know I’m not a great fan of the franchise in general, but here goes with my ranking of the films in The Fast and the Furious franchise.

7) Fast and Furious – Aka the fourth film in the franchise with nearly the same name as the first and where they decided that this was no longer going to really be a franchise about cars. Honestly it’s the only film in the franchise that was so completely forgettable that I cannot remember anything about it. It was the first film since the first to bring the entire main original cast back, but rehashed the Dom and Brian rivalry from the first film. But the fact that the film is so forgettable means that it has to be bottom of the list.

6) 2 Fast 2 Furious – After the first Fast and Furious delivered an entertaining crime drama with a heavy focus on cars and a great main character in Dom, 2 Fast 2 Furious took almost none of that apart from the cars. Brian was the less interesting of the two main characters from the first film, so focusing on him instead of Dom was a horrible idea. But worse than that it introduced us to Roman, played by Tyrese Gibson, a character who exist solely for the purpose of someone to deliver exposition to and call stupid. It lacks the genuine stakes of the first film, and with no Vin Diesel there is definitely something missing.

5) Fast and Furious 6 – There is so much stupid stuff in this film, culminating in the least thought out action sequence ever, the runway/plane action scene at the end of the film. It just leaves you thinking ‘well this is dumb’ and isn’t even particularly fun. On the plus side the film does have Dwayne Johnson return from Fast Five. However Letty’s return from the grave and subsequent amnesia is bad, and Luke Evans’ villain is completely forgettable. After Fast Five this was the series crashing back down to earth, they went far too unbelievable and its boring instead of fun.

4) Furious 7 – This is the best of the Fast and Furious films that I don’t like and have no desire to ever really rewatch again. And it earns its place this high in the list for one reason. THE ROCK FLEXES HIS WAY OUT OF A CAST. That is enough to make it better than 3 of the films that came before it.

3) The Fast and the Furious – Point Break, but with cars. It makes for a fun premise, Dom is a very compelling character in the film, he’s intimidating, but you can also sympathise with him. Paul Walker does what is essentially a good impression of Keanu Reeves from Point Break. The film has some genuine stakes to it, and it’s also the only time in the entire series that their talk about family actually feels genuine. It’s not very original, but it’s far more watchable than the actual Point Break remake. It is also responsible for the massive franchise that has spawned from it.

2) Fast Five – So Fast Five is by a long way the best film in the franchise, although not quite my favourite. The addition of the Rock really kick started the franchise as an action driven one as opposed to one driven by car culture. The Rock also gave a physical threat to Vin Diesel. Director Justin Lin managed to find that balance between great, big action sequences, but also keeping them just the right side of over the top. The ending where they are pulling the safes through the streets of Rio de Janiro is still a high point for the series. Since Fast Five they’ve only gone more over the top, and have missed the sweet spot that 5 found.

1) The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift – In many ways Tokyo Drift, which bar one Vin Diesel cameo at the end of the film had virtually nothing to do with the first two films in the franchise. Tokyo Drift really isn’t a great film, but coming out in 2006, a time that I was really into video games involving cars and racing, such as Need For Speed and Forza, meant that I’ve always enjoyed that this was really a film about street racing in Japan. Lucas Black and Bow Wow aren’t great in the film, but Sung Kang as Han has always been one of my favourite characters in the franchise. Justin Lin also did a great job with many of racing scenes, making them feel dramatic and exciting, including a brilliant finale with a drifting race down a mountain. It may be bad, but it’s a lot fun.

So I’d love to hear from you, are you a fan of this franchise? What are your favourite films from The Fast and Furious series? Let me know in the comments.