Recently, I watched all movies in the entire Fast and Furious franchise, a staggering eleven movies. The latter movies were about as braindead as I had imagined but the first three were pretty good, and I liked where this franchise seemed to be going, i.e. stories centered around the street racing theme, with changing main actors and locations. With the fourth movie, technically with the last scene of the third movie, in which meathead Vin Diesel makes his return, the movies get dumber with each release, sometimes even blatantly ignoring plot holes, such as the wondrous evolution of an urban gentleman who worked as a mechanic into one of the top hackers in the world.
There is one aspect about the Fast and the Furious franchise that deserves mention: it has been around for about two decades, and some of the main characters have been involved since the beginning, perhaps missing one or two movies. In particular, I am thinking of Letty Ortiz, played by Michelle Rodriguez, and Dom Toretto, played by Vin Diesel. The first movie came out in 2001. At that point, Vin Diesel was around 34 years old, and Michelle Rodriguez 33 [EDIT: I made a mistake. She was 23 years old at this point, not 33. See the first two comments below. As this does not fundamentally change the main argument of the article, but actually strengthens it, I have decided not to make any changes to this article.]. They were basically the same age, with the gap being almost exactly one year. In addition, they are a couple in the movies. In the real world, this would be considered a socially acceptable age difference. The woman is supposed to, ideally, be no more than two years younger than the guy. Otherwise, you are a “pedo”, even if the woman is in her early 30s already. Also the age of these two actors at that time is about the typical marriage age in the West.
In my view, one of the worst decisions a guy in his 30s can do is marrying a woman who is of a similar age, simply because of how rapidly women age towards the end of their fertility window. In her early 30s, a woman may still be reasonably attractive and, with a lot of makeup as well as digital editing, pass herself off as being quite a bit younger than she really is, but reality will catch up fast. Let’s look at “Letty Ortiz” in Fast and Furious in the video below:
As you can see, she visibly ages with each single movie, looking quite decent at first and then worse and worse. Bizarrely enough, when this actress is already in her mid-50s in the real world, she is pregnant in the world of the movie. “Fast X” has a scene in which she tells her husband Dom that the fetus is not big enough yet to feel its kicks. On a side note, in this movie the white kid Dom has with another woman is suddenly black. Don’t ask any questions, bigot! It has nothing to do with pushing a social-engineering agenda.
Vin Diesel aged a lot more gracefully than his female counterpart. I think that he is pretty unattractive, but he remains similarly unattractive all throughout the franchise. In his 50s he does not look a lot worse than in his 30s. Obviously he is flabby in his 50s but he was not particularly toned in his 30s either. This guy does not do a lot of half-naked scenes because his physique is not all that great. Steroids got him big arms but apart from that he really is not much of a looker.
The contrast between these two actors is quite remarkable. You can easily see the growing disparity in their looks. While she looks worse and worse in each movie, he looks more or less the same. The decline is a lot more gradual. In the real world, you can observe the same, i.e. men who marry women of the same age end up with a frail and wrinkled woman at a time when they are still in pretty decent shape.
I think marrying a woman of a similar age would not be as much of an issue if you marry really young, i.e. when both are in their early 20s. Then the couple has two decades to strengthen the relationship, and live happily as empty-nesters in their 40s. This is how it used to be and it worked pretty well. With children and grandchildren around, your focus is also shifting towards them, i.e. outwards more than inwards. This is a much better situation than marrying some woman in her 30s who is bitter because all the hot guys only ever pumped-and-dumped her. She is carrying around two decades of resentment and on top, compared to the guy, she is aging in an accelerated way.
Aaron, Michelle Rodríguez was 23 when the Fast & Furious franchise began. Which only reinforces your point.
You are right. Their birthdays are, respectively, 12 July 1978 and 18 July 1967. I made a mistake when collecting data for this articles. One reason why I did not catch this mistake was that I looked at footage of Michelle Rodriguez in the first movie of this franchise, thinking that digital effects were really good in 2001 already instead of realizing that she looks a bit too young for a woman who is 33 years old.
It’s very rare for actresses who were hot early in there career to come back later after they’ve hit the wall. Do you guys think it’s their insecurities about aging, or do you think the casting directors are no longer interested? I’ve wondered this for a while.
Oh, and plastic surgery does not help these women. In fact, it tends to make it worse. And if these former Hollywood starlets can’t afford a good plastic surgeon, things look bleak for the rest of women.
Part of it could also just be wanting their careers to end on a high note. Have you seen Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson? I only watched the highlight, but it was a sad spectacle. The once acknowledged (and deservedly so) Baddest Man on The Planet reduced to a stepping stone. Well, I suppose there are worse fates out there than making millions just by taking some punches in the ring for 16 minutes. Not at all ideal by any means, but better than failed minmaxers who find them knee deep in kim chee in their old age.
“Oh, and plastic surgery does not help these women.”
I often times find myself glad to have been born a man. On a somewhat related note, I think Hoe_Math has said in one of his videos that women generally have things easier/better until we get to the 9-10 SMV range.
A male 9 or 10 has more power than a female 9-10. Because a Male 10 can collect a harem. (or serial monogamy for a long ass time) maybe not with their looksmatch, but a harem of 7-8’s sound pretty good.
A female 10 is going to struggle to lockdown her looksmatch because of the above. If they want commitment, they may have no choice but to date lower.
I’m nowhere near 9-10/10, but I still wouldn’t trade being a man for being a woman. women are often very vicious to each other.
I think the paying public is not very interested in watching movies with female has-beens. Hollywood has attempted to shove old women down our throat, but this is not working very well. In the Fast and Furious franchise, this happens even outside of the main cast. They introduce the world’s most powerful hacker, Cipher, played by Charlize Theron. She is simply too old for this role. Sadly, the same is true for Margot Robbie’s more recent roles. She was born in 1990 but already in Suicide Squad (2016), she barely has the looks to pull off her role as Harley Quinn. In Birds of Prey (2020) she looks out of place.
@Maou: that Tyson stunt strikes me as something that he (or his handlers) came up with after watching the Rocky Balboa movie (i.e. Rocky VI) and he told himself “why not”. Well, apparently he had some blood transfusions for who knows what illness several months ago, and at 58, it was risky as hell for him to have a serious boxing match.
I haven’t seen the Tyson/Paul fight. I don’t think I want to. Just seeing a legendary old man get beat up doesn’t appeal. Very much like Cuck Liddell /Tito Ortiz 3, in the “has been” league. Chuck fucked Tito up twice in the UFC. He should have left lt ike that. He must’ve thought he could actually win even though he was in his 50s! Tito was still young enough to fight in the UFC. I guess some of these guys just need the money.
I as well am glad to be a man. Some men, *not most,* do age like wine. Not a single woman does.
You’re not missing out on anything, man. I only watched the highlights myself. (I don’t really watch combat sports anymore to be honest. Its fun to learn and spar, but I’ve long ago stopped watching the show. The ridiculous chaos of a street altercation is more fun to watch to me. lol) At the highest professional level, you can pretty much predict that a fight is going to be lackluster every time it involves a fighter who should have long been retired. The only time I’ve ever really seen an old fighter trump a young one is if there’s a massive skill mismatch, like a very green fighter against an old retired pro.
“cuck liddell”
Was that on purpose? I have no idea about Liddell’s dating history. If anything, its Ortiz who is the cuck. He married Jenna Jameson!
I have to wonder if he could have just gone for a prime age model without that nasty history. UFC Fighters do have some degree of fame, but sadly they are probably somewhere on the low totem pole in the world of professional athletics.
Props to Francis Ngannou for standing up to Dana White. Hopefully it sets a precedence to UFC Fighters getting better pay and more respect in the coming future.
Wow, that was a total mistake! I did a little research and Chuck has an ex-wife who played on the national Canadian women’s baseball team. They have two kids. Chuck was arrested for domestic violence, but HE was the one who filed for divorce, so who knows.
Can u tell me more about Francis and Dana White? (I’m too lazy to research more right now lol,). I’ve always hated the way they treat their fighters. One guy got only $500 for a fight that he won! FUCK the execs at the UFC! Now that is think about it……FUCK 99 percent of American executives!!