Fast Five Review

Rated PG-13 (Intense Sequences of Violence and Action, Sexual Content and Language)

Running Time: 2 Hours & 10 Minutes

Cast:

Vin Diesel-Dominic Toretto

Paul Walker-Brian O'Conner

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson-Lucas ‘Luke’ Hobbs

Jordana Brewster-Mia Toretto

Tyrese Gibson-Roman Pearce

Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges-Tej Parker

Sung Kang-Han Lue

Matt Schulze-Vince

Gal Gadot-Gisele Harabo

Tego Calderon-Tego Leo

Don Omar-Rico Santos

Elsa Pataky-Officer Elena Neves

Joaquim de Almeida-Hernan Reyes

Michael Irby-Zizi

Eva Mendes-Monica Fuentes

Directed by Justin Lin

What, you think you can out-sweat me?!

For once, the trailers delivered exactly as promised: summer has indeed arrived early with the highly anticipated “Fast Five,” the fifth installment of “The Fast & the Furious” franchise. I’ve made it pretty clear that I don’t think very highly of this series, I mean it’s loud, obnoxious, and dumb ninety percent of the time but the previews showed promise and I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. And you know what? I came away genuinely pleased as “Fast Five” is the best of the series by far, although that’s not exactly high praise considering that it took five attempts to get it right. The writing is still sloppy, the characters still paper-thin, and the action still cartoonishly over-the-top but “Fast Five” is the most story-driven and benefits most from the camaraderie of its multicultural, ensemble cast. Let’s not also forget about the brawl of the century between Vin Diesel and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, whose no-holds-barred fight scene is worth the price of admission alone.

Picking up immediately after “Fast & Furious,” Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) is on a prison bus destined for Lompoc Penitentiary, sentenced to 25 years to life for his crimes. Former FBI agent Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker), along with Dom’s sister, Mia (Jordana Brewster), Tego Leo (Tego Calderon) and Rico Santos (Don Omar) free Dom by forcing the bus to flip over. The group splits up for an unspecified period of time and eventually meets up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Dom’s childhood friend Vince (Matt Schulze) has been living in Rio supporting his wife and son. He enlists Brian and Mia’s aid for an ‘easy’ job to steal three cars from a moving train. Dom arrives to help out but the job quickly goes awry when the crew he hired betrays them, as their goal was to steal only one of the cars, a Ford GT40, for corrupt businessman Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida). Mia drives away with the car but Dom and Brian are captured and brought before Reyes. They escape and manage to make it back to the safehouse where Mia is waiting. Vince is revealed to be working for Reyes and is forced to leave. Brian discovers that the car has a hidden computer chip that contains a record of all of Reyes' illicit business activities, including the location of over $100 million divided up into various safehouses. To avoid running for the rest of their lives, Dom plans for one last heist to take Reyes’ $100 million and assembles a team which includes Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson), Tej Parker (Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges), Han Lue (Sung Kang), Gisele Harabo (Gal Gadot), Tego Leo, and Rico Santos. Meanwhile, Diplomatic Security Service agent Lucas ‘Luke’ Hobbs (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson) and his team, assisted by local officer Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky), is sent in to capture Dom and Brian and bring them to justice, by any means necessary.

“Fast Five” is an incredibly loud movie that revels in its testosterone-fueled action but director Justin Lin, in his third outing, wisely switches gears and moves the focus away from street racing to avoid a rehash, turning this entry into a heist film ala “Ocean’s Eleven,” only less suave and sophisticated. While street racing is still touched upon, it is no longer the heart of the series. Originality will be hard to find and the scenes revolving around the planning of the heist feel workmanlike and uninspired. One scene is even ripped straight out of Ridley Scott’s “American Gangster.” Later on, most of the intricate planning gets thrown out the window in favor of a ridiculous action set-piece that completely disregards real-world physics! Isacc Newton must be rolling in his grave right about now. The writing is also sloppy and often ‘cheats.’ One such example is when the crew receives a replica of the massive bank vault housing Reyes’ money and we wonder how they even managed to acquire it. This is simply explained away with a throwaway line. Some attempt at ‘drama’ is made but it is poorly paced, often coming right after a major action scene. The film also runs a little long, clocking in at over two hours with a drawn out epilogue for each of the characters.

What “Fast Five” excels at is the action set-pieces and this time around, there’s a confidence behind Lin’s direction. There are still flashy cars and bikini-clad women walking in slo-mo to please the male fan-base but they are not as excessively overdone as in the previous entries. The opening scene sets the tone with a massive prison bus flipped over that happens to leave no one hurt! During the attempt to steal the cars on a fast-moving a train, a flatbed truck is driven beside it where one person cuts into the side using nothing but an acetylene torch. The cars are pulled onto the flatbed, which tilt up and are then driven away. It all seems awfully complicated but Lin polishes it to perfection. Of course, everything starts going boom when things go wrong and the flatbed ends up ramming itself onto the side of a train with Dom and Brian escaping by driving off a deep ravine and hitting the water below. There are also intense shootouts between Hobbs and Reyes’ men and they way they’re staged recall the favela levels in Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. The highlight is the brawl between Diesel and Johnson and while it ends quickly, it does not disappoint. It builds up to it and finally lets loose as the two pummel each other like two incredible Hulks, throwing each other into walls and causing untold amounts of damage. “Fast Five” ends with a car chase that really defies description and has to be seen to be believed. Let’s just say it involves two cars dragging a giant bank vault with high-tension wire through the streets of Rio and smashing into many buildings and cars.

The ‘acting’ largely involves shouted lines of dialogue and tons of male posturing. It seems like Vin Diesel and Paul Walker’s career has been reduced to this franchise. Diesel’s larger-than-life presence is always welcome but Walker comes off as useless. The large ensemble cast limits how much screen-time each gets but makes up for it with their humorous camaraderie, especially between Gibson, Bridges, and Kang. Johnson really runs with his tough officer role and he’s so tough that he’s always drenched in sweat in every scene he appears in. The remaining female cast doesn’t amount to much. Jordana Brewster spends much of the film behind a computer screen, serving as the team’s Oracle like Batman. Gal Gadot only has one memorable scene and yes, it involves dropping her towel and revealing her supermodel body. Elsa Pataky is the rookie cop assisting Hobbs and is one of the more fleshed-out characters. Finally there’s Joaquim de Almeida as corrupt businessman Hernan Reyes, who’s just another in a long line of clichéd and generic villains.

Released on April 29, 2011 into regular theaters and IMAX, “Fast Five” has received a positive reception with 78% on Rotten Tomatoes, the best reviews the franchise has ever received since the original’s release in 2001 and an absolute rarity for fourth sequels. Critics called it ‘sleek, loud, and over the top, [the film] proudly embraces its brainless action thrills.’ Since the beginning of 2011, the box office has been down and although it received a slight uptick this month, this is the weekend that it might finally show positive growth. Actually, it already has as “Fast Five” has grossed a muscular $33 million on Friday on its way to an estimated $75 to $80 million weekend total. It doesn’t seem like the franchise will be put into the garage anytime soon if the post-credits scene is any indication and for the first time, I’m actually intrigued to see what happens next! Audience reaction was overwhelmingly positive and many seemed absolutely excited for a sixth entry. “Fast Five” straddles the line between outright stupidity and high entertainment, although thankfully it leans more toward the latter.  It offers what you would expect but there’s an assured confidence behind the proceedings with Lin’s direction and for the first time, the franchise has finally found its groove despite its lazy story-telling.

Final Rating: 3 out of 5

“Chances are sooner or later, we’re gonna end up behind bars or buried in a ditch somewhere…but not today.”