Torque (2004) and How it Pokes Fun at The Fast and the Furious

There are two things that spring to mind when a movie comes out and is very popular.  Other movies will undeniably be made aping the same tone, story, or style of the popular movie.  That is inevitable.  Look at modern cinema.  Two movies came out this year about the White House being taken over.  Four movies were released about Hansel and Gretel.  Last year, we had a slew of Snow White movies.  When a movie comes out that has even the smallest chance of popularity, it gets aped.  The other thing that springs to mind is that movies will be released either parodying or poking fun at the popular movie.  That is what breeds all of the movie movies, and it is what helped to initiate this week’s Sunday “Bad” Movie, Torque.

Before I delve into Torque, let’s go over the parody aspect of poking fun at movies.  I’ve covered this a couple times before and I will link to those posts at the end of this one.  I feel I should quickly go over that territory again with how it pertains to this specific idea.  Parodies are made to capitalize on making fun of other movies, while completely stealing the entire story of those movies.  Scary Movie is basically taking the Scream movies, and remaking them as comedies.  Take a part of Scream 2, put it in with this part of Scream, make a dick joke, make a pop culture reference, and voila!  There’s the movie.  There’s not a lot of effort that needs to be put into the movies other than some sort of an attempt at making them funny.

Torque was clearly inspired by The Fast and the Furious, and spends some time making fun of the movie, but is in no way a parody in the way that Scary Movie is.  Torque does not completely ape the story of its inspiration.  Instead, director Joseph Kahn and writer Matt Johnson made an original story with a unique vision, while still making fun of the movie that spurred them on.  The story does not resemble that of The Fast and the Furious, but at the same time, Torque is made to be the antithesis of that movie.

Let me get into details about what Torque does to distance itself from the parody flicks that completely tarnish anybody’s expectations of a film being made that can actually satirize another film.  Most of it lies within the story.  The story of Torque is that a man stole some motorcycles filled with crystal meth from another biker, and must prove to the police that the bikes aren’t his, while being hunted by the other biker and his gang, as well as a gang in which a member was killed and the murder was framed on him.  Does that make sense?  This story is not like The Fast and the Furious.  That is what separates Torque from the parody films.  The similarity between Torque and the parodies are that they are making fun of the source film.

Throughout Torque, the writer and director take pleasure in poking fun at The Fast and the Furious.  The opening scene is filled with little jokes about the movies.  A Street sign spins on its post to reveal “Cars suck.”  Then there is a race between cars that look like they come from The Fast and the Furious that ends with the generalization that car drivers are assholes.  That’s the opening scene.  There’s a moment later in the film where one character says a line right out of The Fast and the Furious, then another character says that it’s one of the dumbest things she has ever heard.  But the thing that really takes the cake is that the main villain in Torque is played by Matt Schulze who was in The Fast and the Furious in a rather large role.  Each of these things help to vilify The Fast and the Furious without making Torque into “The Fast and the Furious, but funnier.”  This is a movie spawned by the fact that The Fast and the Furious exists, but it’s also a movie that is meant to go against The Fast and the Furious.  Torque is Torque.

Movies will always be made in order to make money off of the success of other movies.  Whether knocking a movie down a peg, or replicating the movie entirely, producers will always want to cash in on the achievements of others.  It is how money is made in the movie industry.  You take something recognizable, make a slight adjustment, and put it out again.  People will go out and see it.  It’s all about recognition.  People feel safe with what they know.  Hollywood knows this.  Hollywood will always know this.  We will always get movies through these means.  Sometimes we get Scary Movie, sometimes we get Torque.  Either way, we’re getting movies.  I don’t care if the movies are derivative or entirely enjoyable.  If I like them, I like them.  That’s all that matters in the end.

There are a few notes that I want to make before leaving you for another week:

• I told you I would link them earlier, so here are the links for 30 Nights of Paranormal Activity with the Devil Inside the Girl with theDragon Tattoo, and A Haunted House.
• One of the Hansel and Gretel movies was covered in the Sunday "Bad" Movies.  It was Hansel and Gretel Get Baked.
• Jaime Pressly was in Torque.  She was also in The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure.
• Max Beesley was in Torque.  He was also in Glitter.
• Torque was suggested by @JoshMArcher.
• If you have any suggestions on movies that I should watch for the Sunday “Bad” Movie, you can leave a comment below, or you could message me on Twitter.