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Fast and Furious on your iPod Touch
In our new regular online report, we take the new Fast and Furious (starring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker) for a test drive on the iPod Touch.
When a film opens with a massive set piece involving at least three tricked out fast cars complete with muscled up drivers taking over a speeding oil tanker before it goes over a cliff, you know it's been designed to be shown on the big shiny silvery screen complete with surround sound and the smell of popcorn in the air.
So when it is instead viewed on the small portable screen of an iPod touch, you can't help but imagine what that cinema experience was like. Funnily enough, it's not that difficult to imagine. As the white earphoned masses that can be seen walking down streets and sitting on buses can attest, the immersive experience of being in your own world, grooving to your own beat is second to none when the hustle and bustle passes by. Or when you are sitting in your backyard on a sunny day and enjoying the deep dulcet tones of Vin Diesel as he once again gets behind the wheel, it's actually thrilling knowing that you are the only one enjoying this singular activity.
In squeezing Vin Diesel's large arms into the iPod touch, we witness the fourth story in the Fast and Furious franchise, which follows Dominic Toretto (Diesel) seeking revenge for the death of his girlfriend (Michelle Rodriguez) and once again teaming up with FBI agent Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) as they track the same enemy. The film lives up to its title and, while it doesn't offer much of a storyline or fantastic performances from its lead cast, the point is to watch the cars and the girls and there's plenty of both.
The re-formatting of the movie for the iPod Touch compares to the picture clarity of a DVD version of the film, and the sound, while it may not be as booming as you'd expect in the cinema, still projects into your ears the melodic tunes of engines rumbling and tyres exploding in Dolby surround sound . In fact, the clarity of both sound and vision was so good that FILMINK would advise not watching this film in a car as it may confuse you into thinking that you're there. Some of the action does lose out when transferred to a smaller screen, particularly in one scene where Walker and Diesel are outdriving some baddies in a claustrophobic tunnel, in terms of keeping track of who is crashing into who. But overall the film translates well into this portable format. Make sure you hold on tight to your iPod when you watch this joy ride burn rubber.
Fast and Furious is available to download through your iTunes store today.