The summer movie blockbuster season kicks off at high velocity speeds with Universal’s “Fast Five”. Both Paul Walker and Vin Diesel are back for this fifth installment in the Fast & The Furious franchise and are joined by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for a movie I can best describe as “Ocean’s 11” meets “Gone in 60 Seconds”.
In the latest installment of the franchise, our star characters Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) and Mia (Jordana Brewster) who are now wanted fugitives in the United States hightail it down to Rio to stay off the radar and keep a low cover, which of course doesn’t happen. During the course of events, the trio gets their hands on information about secret cash houses in Rio owned by a local drug lord and decide to put together a team and rob him. Meanwhile, federal agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and his team of crack commandos along with the help of a female rookie Rio police officer (Elsa Pataky) are tasked with the job of trying to bring Toretto and his crew to justice.
I personally have never been a huge fan of the ‘Fast & The Furious’ franchise, but this movie which was far less about street car racing and more about bank heists was a very enjoyable action flick to watch. It was great seeing Johnson kicking ass again, and I think this was probably his best role since “The Rundown.”
Vin Diesel really seemed to be on top of his game for this one, and he did a great job of portraying the serious tough guy attitude while adding a number of humorous moments at the same time.
I won’t pretend to say that this movie is anything but a great action “popcorn” flick with tons of tough guy fight scenes, over-the-top action scenes and one of the most unique car chase scenes I have ever seen in a movie. Even though some of these action scenes really stretch the bounds of believability, I think you will enjoy yourself as long as you remember what kind of movie this really is.
One other thing I would note, even though this is a fifth film in a pretty long-standing franchise, you don’t really need to see the previous four films to be able to enjoy this one. There are certainly some instances where knowing what happened in the previous movies will allow you to better understand some of the subtle mentions and character backgrounds, but you don’t need to see those movies to really be able to enjoy this one. It might take you a minute to get the post-credit bonus if you haven’t watched the previous movies, but if you were paying close attention to this one I think you will be able to figure it out.
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