Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges, Matt Schulze, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Dwayne Johnson, Elsa Pataky
Directed By: Justin Lin
Run Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
The Fast Five picks up where part four left off - with Dom (played by Diesel) being sentenced to jail. The crew busts Dom out of jail and then they all hide out in Rio. They meet up with former crew member Vince (played by Schulze) who has a heist for them - steal some cars. The deal goes south when a part of the Rio crew kills some federal agents who try to stop them. Now Brian (played by Walker), Dom, and Mia (played by Brewster) are now numero uno on the FBI's most wanted list. In comes agent Hobbs (played by Johnson) who always gets his man.
The opening two minutes are probably the weakest minutes ever in film history. Dom gets sentenced. I know this movie is picking up exactly where part four left off but that was over two years ago and most of us just don't remember or care. It probably would have been more dramatic to see Dom in orange and shackles sitting on the prison transport bus with a voice over detailing the sentencing. But the movie quickly redeemed itself as Brian and Mia stop the bus and bust Dom out. I'm not sure how anyone survived the bus crash. And I'm really not certain I want a bus to rear-end the car I'm driving at highway speed. Seems to me there should have been a lot more damage to everyone involved. But then again, I am the girl who really believes a city bus can jump a hundred yards so I guess I can try to believe that a prison bus can rear-end a car and everyone - including the car - can walk away without a scratch.
That being said, this movie was fun. Not nearly as fun as the first one and the fourth one, but it was decent. Not good or great but decent. I loved seeing ALL the players (even the guy from Tokyo Drift) together in the same movie. Now that was fun. The disappointing part of the movie was that there were very few car chases/races. Very few. I'm ticking them off in my head and there were four. Probably should have been at least five.
I know that Dwayne Johnson bulked up thirty pounds of muscle to look a little more foreboding against Vin Diesel. That being said, their fight scene was a bit of a let down. Dwayne is several inches taller than Vin and a ton more muscle. Plus, he's a former wrestler. Vin is just a former bouncer. One tried to break up fights; the other was in fake fights. Still, I'd put my money on Dwayne any day. I think he just has more skills. So their fight scene was a bit of a disappointment to me. It was a little unrealistic. Kind of like a scene in Heat where Al Pacino beats up Henry Rollins. Um, yeah. Like that could happen. Oh, and watching two muscular bald guys roll around in the shadows makes it difficult to follow along. At one point I internally cheered and then realized it wasn't my guy that was winning. Oops. Some bald guy had a great punch.
I just recently watched The Rundown (starring Dwayne Johnson). It's a fairly decent flick. Really. And Dwayne does a really decent job in it. Really. And Vin Diesel was really good in Find Me Guilty. I know these two can act. Weird how it didn't come through in this movie. Perhaps it was the unbelievably corny lines they were given. "Above all else, we never let them get in the cars." I understand what point he was trying to make but there's just something flat about that line. And that's not even the hokiest line. I think it would have been funnier if he had said, "What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area." Hee hee hee.
The plot. Fairly straight forward for this type of a movie - revenge and stick it to the guy who stuck it to you. But what I wasn't okay with was the end cross-over. Don't buy that either character would do that, no matter how betrayed they felt. There are consequences for that type of action, no matter how corrupt Rio is.
Which brings us back to the final chase scene. Um, if a two ton safe is whipping around smashing into things like buildings, wouldn't the momentum flip the cars that are dragging it?
Hmm... I liked this movie (and will definitely go see Fast Six for a chance to see another Dwayne and Vin punching match) but I didn't love it. I was so hoping it would pull it out in the end but it didn't. Sure, the twist was fun (and I'll have to re-watch the 10 second advantage they had just to see if I can see the twist in action) but the whole tone of the movie was flat. It just needed an inch of an extra boost to really be fun. It missed it. Darnit. But I did like the Dwayne/Vin fight. The car chases/races were lacking the extra adrenalin boost, particularly since at least three of them were implausible (bus rear-ending Brian's dead-stopped car; the wrecker crashing into the train but not derailing it; and the safe being dragged through the streets without flipping the car dragging it). But I liked it. Didn't love it but liked it. Enough to make me see the next installment.
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