Pages

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Movie Review: Fast Five

Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Amazing stunts, likeable characters
Cons: Very much over the top, we are rooting for thieves
The Bottom Line:
Action in Rio
Action and stunts reign supreme
Not believable




“This Just Want from Mission: Impossible to Mission: Freakin’ Insanity.”

I let a couple of years go between watching entries in the Fast and Furious franchise.  I really have no excuse since Fast Five has been one of the movies on my DVR for just about that entire time.  Anyway, at this point, I knew what to expect, and that’s exactly what I got.

As teased at the end of Fast & Furious, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) has been sentenced to 25 years in prison due to his crimes.  However, he never makes it thanks to his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) and former agent Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker).  On the run, the trio wind up in Rio, where an attempt to score some quick cash by stealing some cars from a train goes wrong.

With corrupt businessman Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) out to get them, the trio decide to take all of his money in the final job of their career.  They call in some friends, old and new, to help.  As if that weren’t enough, they also have special agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) on their tale.  Will they pull it off and escape?

I don’t typically watch movies where you are supposed to be rooting for the criminals to pull off their crime and get away with it.  And, at times, that’s been an issue for me with this franchise.  Yet I keep watching.  Here, it didn’t really bother me, probably because the man the characters was targeting was truly awful.

I think it’s also because, even though it’s been a few years between movies, I’ve really come to like these characters.  It helps that Dominic, Brian, and Mia have formed such a bond.  You can’t help but root for them to come out on top.

This is the first movie to feature Dwayne Johnson in the franchise.  Also joining things is Gal Gadot as a member of the gang that is called in to help out.

But let’s be honest, we watch these movies for the over-the-top car stunts.  And, while the movie isn’t filled with them from start to finish, it does have a couple of extremely impressive sequences.  Highly improbable, but also extremely impressive.  I was rolling my eyes at the same time I couldn’t look away because I had to know what was going to happen next.

Speaking of which, I am very curious where the franchise goes from here.  It’s the lack of a cliffhanger that really makes me wonder about that.  Honestly, given what happened to Paul Walker a couple years after this movie was filmed, I kind of wish this was the last we saw of his character.

But I’ll learn his character’s fate when I get another couple of movies into the franchise.  For now, if you want some mindless action with over-the-top stunts, you’ll enjoy Fast Five.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by. In order to combat spam, I moderate most comments. I'll get to your comment as soon as I can.