Fast Five (2011)

I’m a huge fan for (most of) the Fast and the Furious movies! This comes when you date a guy who is crazy about anything related to cars.  Fast & Furious is just all about adrenaline and cars and whatnot.  Its nothing to be raving about sophistication but its usually a fun ride, although there are a few exceptions in the franchise that I’m not exactly a big fan of but whenever I hear of a new one coming out, it always gets me all excited! With Fast Six just around the corner, my boyfriend gave me a choice to rewatch Iron Man 1 &2 or this…and I guess I was more into this at the moment 😉

Director: Justin Lin

Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Ludacris, Gal Gadot, Tego Calderon, Don Omar

After rescuing Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) while on his way to jail, Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker) and his girlfriend/Toretto’s sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) are set to meet at their friend Vince’s place in Rio de Janeiro.  While there they get in on a job with Vince’s connection to steal some cars from a train. When they realize that that it isn’t a simple job, Mia drives off into hiding and meets up with Brian and Dominic to end up realizing that it has to do with a rich and powerful criminal in Rio de Janerio called Reyes. While they are being hunted down by Reyes and his men, the FBI’s special team also sends out Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) who teams up with a rookie Rio policewoman to capture Dominic and O’Connor. As things get to the point of no return, Dominic and Brian whip up a plan to gather their best and trustworthy friends to build a team that can perform the most epic heist to steal all of Reyes’ money in one shot in order to get their freedom.

There really is no end to Justin Lin’s increasing awesomeness in these fancy car stunts, heist, action.  Justin Lin took over this franchise with the 3rd one doing Tokyo Drift which to me was the worst in the Fast series.  This one easily is very much the best.  I love Fast & Furious to bits and I got to see that one in theatres.  Unfortunately for this one, due to work and whatnot, my boyfriend ended up seeing it with his friend instead so I only got to see it at home. Fast Five is enjoyable and thrilling to watch.  Its action-packed and keeps our adrenaline rushing during the whole duration!

What I truly enjoy about this movie is how the relationship of the audience and Dominic and Brian and the core team has made us familiar with those characters and their personalities.  It makes for a level of continuity and that we follow through the dangers that they encounter.  It gives us the adrenaline rush and intensity that makes everything work and fall into place.  The story never has to be complicated and it never has to more than the sole desire for everyone to stick together and have each other’s back and just to get their own form of freedom.   Aside from the familiarity of the team, they have impeccable chemistry.  Sung Kang’s Han always makes me laugh with his normalcy but coolness.  We have the Mexican guys who are the drivers and always playing the clowns of the operations.  Tyrese Gibson’s Roman and Ludacris’s Tej Parker makes us laugh with their talk and interaction.  Of course, other than Mia, we always need to have a hot available but tough chick and we bring in Gal Gadot’s motorcycle riding weapon expert Gisele Harabo.

No franchise could succeed with just the same cast doing similar brainless entertainment, so this time, we throw in The Rock’s Hobbs as a dangerous federal agent who has one thing in his job description is to not ask questions and catch the guy on the wanted list.  In this case, its Dominic Toretto.  Of course, he gets caught in more and this brings him to think and decide on what he needs to do next.  The challenges between these two characters adds a lot more than expected.  Its two big guys in the industry and they just have so much power and toughness and machoism.  Look at that scene up there, its possibly one of my fave scenes of them.  Now imagine when they actually fight…LOVE IT!

Fast Five is adrenaline pumping, (almost non-stop) action-packed fun! Something to just shut your mind off and enjoy to the max.  If that doesn’t work for you, we have two crazy big guys that match up to each other with Vin Diesel  and The Rock.  Now if even that doesn’t even do it for you, there’s a lot of funny dialogue that goes on.  It’ll get you to have some pretty good laughs. Just remember, you’re not here to look at impeccable acting or sophisticated plot.  If you had fun with this, thats what counts 🙂 You like cars, heists, chases, crashes, loud and out of the world stunts, then I’d say there isn’t much better than this!

Maybe I’m crazy or I’m just SO EXTREMELY PUMPED UP for the next one! Or I’m both…I don’t know! Definitely check this one out 🙂