Director Justin Lin, gives audiences exactly what they want, fast cars, gorgeous women and manly fight scenes. Fast 5 is the fifth installment of the hugely popular franchise and although Lin did not direct the original or its sequel, he did create the extravagant Tokyo drift and the Fast and Furious 4, which led us to this gem.
Director: Justin Lin. Writer: Chris Morgan. Producer: Vin Diesel and Michael Fottrel. Cinematography: Stephen F. Windon. Editor: Kelly Matsumoto, Fred Raskin and Christian Wagner. Starring: Vindiesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Dwayne Johnson, Elsa Pataky, Matt Schulte, Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Tego Calderon, Don Omar, Jaqguim de Almeida, Michael Irby and Fernando Chien. Running time: 130 min. Genre: Action/Crime. Rated: PG 13.
The movie begins where the previous one (Fast and Furious 4) ended, with Dominic (Vin Diesel) being transported to a high facility prison. What ensues is a daring escape orchestrated by former FBI agent Brian (Paul Walker) and sister Mia (Jordana Brewster). The trio decides to split up and later meet in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where the rest of the movie takes place. It is here where they undertake a job with their friend Vince (Matt Schulte) to steal three cars from a train, but the job goes wrong and a few DEA agents are killed in the process, moving Dominic and his friends to the top of the most wanted list. In comes the relentless special agent Luke (Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a The Rock) and assistant local officer Elena (Elsa Pataky) hired by the FBI to track down the Toretto-O’Conner clan.
The plot is not complicated or even very clever; it comes down to wanting freedom (away from FBI and prison). In order to achieve this they of course need money, this is where the action comes in. Dominic, Brian and Mia decide to rob a very powerful drug lord of all his money, $100 million, but in order to do so successfully they need a team of ‘specialist’. Here, director Justin Lin borrows a page from Gone in 60 seconds, assembling a team where each person has a unique skill and an even more distinctive personality. The team then starts on their mission of getting to and breaking into an impenetrable vault. What follows are witty remarks and quick comebacks by the team members, lots of car chases and stuff being smashed up in outlandish and outrages ways, not to mention all the shooting and explosions.
I appreciated the lack of curse words, proving that action movies don’t need to constantly drop the F-bomb to be seen as masculine and powerful. The dialogue was not good, but let’s be honest the Fast and Furious franchise is not about what’s being said, but rather about what’s being done. My favourite is when special agent Luke is told there is good news and bad news, his response: “I like my dessert first (referring to the good news), now give me my veggies” (the bad news). I think this proves my point.
Trying to display emotional depth in the movie was like trying to pull a tooth, no one enjoys it, but it must be done. Only, did it really have to be that painful to watch? Every time Dominic had to show an emotion, which was mostly anger or regret, the camera would do a close up of his eyes to portray the inner turmoil he felt. All I felt was uncomfortable, a big guy trying to work through his emotional demons, who wants to see that?
VERDICT: Other than the lack of dialogue and emotion (who cares, there are high speed car chases and awesome shoot outs!) the movie was very enjoyable to watch and I had a few good belly laughs throughout the movie. There was even one point where my jaw was literally hanging open. If you enjoyed its predecessors go and watch Fast 5, you won’t regret it.
Fast And Furious 5 is out in theatres now.
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