Adam Collins posted on April 29, 2011 00:00
Well, my journey through the Fast and Furious franchise came to an end Tuesday night as I watched Fast Five. That means that I sat through all five movies in five consecutive nights. That is a lot of fast cars and hot women. Fast Five marks the third collaboration between director Justin Lin and writer Chris Morgan, all in this franchise.
Fast Five opens with the ending of Fast & Furious. Dom’s trial and sentencing. Dom on the prison bus with Mia, Tego, and Brian coming to the rescue. This time, we see them help Dom escape. Ridiculous does not adequately describe the scene. Let me just say, there is no way that they carried off the plan without casualties.
Next, we are in Rio de Janeiro with Brian and Mia. They come to a stop in a ghetto where they run into Vince from the original film. He tells them of a job boosting cars that will be a walk in the park for them to complete, there’s a catch—the cars are being held by the DEA on a moving train. The heist goes wrong, and the movie shifts into high gear and never really slows down for the next two hours.
Dom, Brian, and Mia, who are already on the U.S.’s Most Wanted List, are now the object of obsession for the crime kingpin of Rio de Janeiro, Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida, Desperado) and his right hand man Zizi (Michael Irby, The Unit). So, our friends decide to put together a crew to rob Reyes of his $100 million. The crew building scene reminds me of a similar scene; the putting together of George Clooney’s crew in Ocean’s Eleven. Here’s who comes to play arranged by original movie appearance:
The Fast and the Furious 2 Fast 2 Furious
Dom Toretto – Vin Diesel Roman Pierce – Tyrese Gibson
Brian O’Conner – Paul Walker Tej – Chris “Ludacris” Bridges
Mia Toretto – Jordana Brewster
Vince – Matt Schulze
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift Fast & Furious
Han – Sung Kang Tego (now Leo?) – Tego Calderon
Gisele – Gal Gadot
Santos – Don Omar
Poor Han is the only representative of the third film. I was surprised by the number of cast members who returned from the fourth film. The three of them just were not that important to Fast & Furious. The team puts together a plan to rob Reyes blind. But of course, there is a catch. All the money gets moved to a high-end safe in the police station. This leads to building a mock up of the driving course required for the heist, just like in The Italian Job. At one point, invisible cars are mentioned, and I got scared that Q was going to show up and give them the infamous Aston Martin “Vanish” from Die Another Day.
Hot on the trail of our band of loveable outcasts, Dwayne Johnson joins the cast as Defense Security Services Agent Hobbs. He has his own team of highly trained government bounty hunters. His team is tasked with tracking down, arresting, and bringing in O’Conner and the Toretto siblings. Dwayne Johnson fit in nicely with the veteran cast. His character added a lot to the film, in both muscle and comedy.
During the production of Fast Five, I read that they spent days filming the fight between Hobbs and Dom. After the anti-climactic fight between Fenix and Dom in the last film, this battle was great. I might even go as far as to call it “epic.”
As Fast Five rolls on, I realize that I am not watching a typical Fast and Furious movie. It is more of a heist movie. It has little more to do with cars than The Italian Job. But, I found myself enjoying this movie more than I should have. Fast Five focuses on loyalty and trust. It also focuses on good guys being bad and bad guys being good. This seems to be a recurring theme for the franchise.
Early in the film, it is obvious that the cars may have changed, but the bad acting has stayed the same. Having just watched all the prior films, I did catch a lot of humor and inside jokes that I know I would have missed. The script was laden with bad one-liners on par with the first film. Morgan played well to each actor’s character and each of the past characters brought something to the table. The smaller roles were still important. I have drawn many comparisons from other films to Fast Five, but it easily stands alone as its own film. There’s even a Top Gun moment before the finale. Speaking of the finale, the final car chase involves two Dodge Chargers dragging a huge heavy vault through Rio causing millions of dollars of destruction. Again, I cannot imagine that there would not be casualties if this were to actually happen.
Finally, Fast Five is pure testosterone and adrenaline on screen. Was it ridiculous? Indeed. At times, I found myself shaking my head and laughing at its ridiculousness, as did the guys around me. But, oddly, I found it very entertaining and enjoyable. Fast Five is infinitely better than the last action movie starring The Rock. As I mentioned in my retrospective view of the franchise, I had my concerns about a 130 minute running time. I do not anymore. I might take some heat for this, but I think this might be my favorite movie of the franchise. Even with a budget reported to be between $80 million and $100 million, Universal should make a healthy profit both domestically and internationally. In other words, expect a sixth installment in two years. So, would I recommend this? Absolutely. But, be warned; there are a few shaky camera scenes that could give you motion sickness. This style of filmmaking needs to come to an end. People, like my wife, cannot watch scenes shot that way without getting nauseous. One last thought, be sure to stay for the credits for a scene involving Hobbs and another Fast alumni.