Written by Vickie
April 29, 2011
About 30 seconds into this high-octane, wickedly fun, thoroughly satisfying action sequel, you know it’s totally going to deliver on all of its promises. And then some.
Trailers and TV ads for director Justin Lin’s follow-up to Fast & Furious were hugely enticing, and the resulting movie has all cylinders firing. The fifth film in the uneven franchise, Fast Five giddily grabs its audience by the collective collar and yanks them into a 130-minute exercise in unapologetic fun and excitement. Is it deep? Is meaningful? Is it a multi-layered story with complex workings and profound character development? Heck no!
But that’s why it’s great.
Because, really, when it comes to these sorts of films, all people want is to be entertained and to feel like their time and money were well spent. If stuff blows up along the way or hot girls parade around in micro-clothes, even better.
To that end, the film drops us into Brazil – from the beaches to the favelas of Rio, to be precise – where on-the-lam fugitives and Fast veterans Dom (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker) and Mia (Jordana Brewster) are holed up in the hopes of scoring One Last Job before they disappear into anonymity in some far flung destination. Thankfully, old pal Vince (Matt Schulze) has just such an opportunity… but it’s not long before the plan goes awry and our trio of antiheroes find themselves going toe-to-toe with a slick, ruthless operator named Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), who just happens to be the biggest crime lord in the city. He’s got a hundred million dollars of drug money in storage, and Dom decides stealing that cache of cash would make for a tidy “retirement” package.
In the blink of a headlight, he assembles an all-star team of gearheads from Fast films gone by: Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Ludacris), Han (Sung Kan), Gisele (Gal Gadot), Leo (Tego Calderon) and Santos (Don Omar). Together, they become one lean, mean, lightning-fast, car-racing, money-thieving machine.
Oh, and did I mention that a beefy, hardcore Federal agent (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who spends the entire movie literally, and always inexplicably, dripping with sweat) is hot on their tailpipes? Well, he is, and he’s really, really pissed.
What follows is epic levels of explosive action; some cleverly cheeky dialogue in a script that never slows down; genuine camaraderie amidst a familiar cast; and a whole lotta really fancy, tricked-out vehicles (cars, trucks, you name it) zig-zagging across the screen. The actors wear their characters like a second skin by now, and there’s a nice ease with which they interact, which is coupled with a very subtle melancholy vibe hidden well below the story’s polished surface. Though they’re still the same adrenaline junkies they’ve always been, Dom and crew have matured, gotten older, grown a little paunchier and the years show, both on their faces and in their behavior. Dare I say… it was almost sweet.
As an aside, I’m not sure if all the homoerotic subtext between Diesel and Johnson’s characters was intentional on the part of the filmmakers, but holy cow was ever a blast to watch. (My movie-going pal and I kept waiting for the two of them to stare each other down… and then make out.)
The automotive acrobatics and meticulous choreography of cars are nothing short of jaw-droppingly fantastic, with chase sequences that defy logic (which is fine, under the circumstances) and the laws of physics. Best of all, none of it felt like a retread of work from earlier films. Sure, the premise in those kinds of scenes is simple – drive fast, no matter what! – but there was a consistent sense of imagination and freshness injected into every hairpin turn or ramp launch.
Easily one of the best times I’ve had at the movies this year so far, Fast Five gets the summer-movie season off to a terrific start. [And be sure to stay through the credits for a super-awesome bonus scene.]
