Let’s pretend 2 Fast 2 Furious, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Fast & Furious didn’t happen and get right back to the original awesomeness of The Fast and the Furious franchise. That’s pretty much what Fast Five did as we start right off with Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker), and Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) on the run and heading down through South America ending up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where they meet up with Vince (Matt Schulze). Yup, they’re all back for the 5th installment of Cars Gone Wild but this time you won’t be disappointed as this might be the perfect formula for a summer blockbuster/popcorn movie. Just sit back, relax and lose yourself in this ridiculous action comedy.
The premise is simple: Brian O’Conner finds himself on the other side of a wanted poster with pregnant girlfriend Mia Toretto and brother Dominic Toretto. They want to stop running and be able to live a life where they can start a new family and not have to constantly look over their shoulders. They need to do one last job. Coincidentally, while stealing cars from some other guys who were stealing cars from DEA agents, they stumble on a computer chip which holds all the information on the cash houses of Rio’s #1 crime boss named Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida). On top of that, Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) has been called in with his super elite precision team to find the three fugitives and bring them to justice. Got it? Vroom…let’s drive.
Paul Walker and Vin Diesel together again in Fast Five
So you think these car movies are overdone and there’s nothing left to see? Well director Justin Lin doesn’t think so. How do you make a speeding car scene more exciting? Add a train. How do you make that better? Add a bridge. Not enough for you? How about we add a drop into water longer than the one in Inception. And that’s just the beginning of the movie! While there isn’t enough quarter mile runs to make all the die hard car racing fans happy, there is still a good bit. They opted for more shootemup action than quarter mile pink slip races, but don’t worry, there’s still a plethora of cars being featured, raced, spun, drifted and totally demolished. The movie moves as fast as the driving and the tempo of the film is great. Lin even makes the subtitles fun! (Remember, we’re in Rio so a lot of the locals are speaking Portuguese as well as some Spanish characters).
Wait, those guns aren't muscle cars...are they imports!?
The key to this movie is to escape in it. Don’t try to understand it…just sit in the passenger seat and go for a joyride. There are plenty of scenes you can laugh at and have fun with. Paul Walker’s character is always so terrible but now I think everybody just accepts that. He even gets to do a flying jump punch this time! There’s a crazy foot chase jumping from roof to roof of the barrios (read: ghetto) of Rio. Guns blazing and no one important gets shot, of course. There is absolutely no value of life in this movie and the main characters are pretty much separated from the rest of the world…they don’t care what they do or how it affects anyone else – they’re shooting a high action kill whatever’s in your way action flick! Vin Diesel is his prime and the beginning of the film felt like every shot was a slow motion close up of him but if you thought he was bad ass, just wait till Dwayne Johnson steps onto the screen. You’ll be happy to know that these two go at it. And it’s awesome.
kiss.
The three amigos end up building a team for their last big heist which brings in familiar faces from past movies. This is pretty much Ocean’s Eleven with rappers, instead of comedians, who can drive cars. It’s the Brazilian Job (the sequel to The Italian Job) before it’s made. The banter between Tej (Ludacris) and Roman (Tyrese) is hilarious as well as the back and forth between Santos (Don Omar) and Leo (Tego Calderon) (our Spanish characters). “Why are you so negative?” “I’m not negative, just positive you’re going to mess it up!” Han (Sung Kang) and Gisele (Gal Gadot) are also back for this instalment. There are plenty of running gags and inside jokes that will make you feel as if you’re part of the family. So what’s at stake? How about 11 million dollars each. Tyrese’s character notes, “that sounds like a lot of vaginal attention to me.”
The whole crew of Fast Five...I just liked this pic a lot
The summer blockbuster movie season is officially open and this is a great first entry. It has everything you want from a summer popcorn flick: action, comedy, hot girls, fast cars, big guns, banging soundtrack, a beginning, middle and end. I caught myself smiling a lot during the movie…from the cool action shots, to the witty and somewhat smart script, to the over the top scenarios that this bunch found themselves in. I had fun and I think a lot of you will too…this is definitely a guilty pleasure. Get your adrenaline pumping and let this movie have its way with you. Oh, and stay till the end of the credits…there will be a sixth movie. What do you think the title will be this time?
Tags: Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges, Don Omar, Dwayne Johnson, Fast Five, Gal Gadot, Joaquim de Almeida, Jordana Brewster, Justin Lin, Ludacris, Paul Walker, Sung Kang, Tego Calderon, Tyrese Gibson, Vin Diesel
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
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