Fast Five Review

• 19th Apr 2011

How excited was I about seeing Fast Five? (Which is the title we have settled on for this. Firstly because it is better than those awful Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist poster titles and also, because it is the title that appears on screen!) How excited was I?  Not at all.

I’m not a car fanatic, I think Paul Walker is a blonde Keanu Reeves and the first film ripped off Point Break. I was angry at the first film. The second I saw and instantly forgot. I skipped the third film and the fourth, while mildly diverting I still don’t recall much about. So you can imagine how excited I was about the prospect of a fifth.

The trailer campaign included some of the most ridiculous stunts I’d seen, but I do admit the prospect of The Rock (Sorry, Dwayne Johnson) joining the regular cast seemed like a plus.

So in we went and sat through the opening sequence where our heroes Brian O’Conner (Walker) and Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) break out Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) in the dumbest stunt I’ve ever seen in a film involving a car making a bus flip over 17 times (sorry Eddie Murphy). In fact that bus is so messed up you wonder just how anyone managed to survive it – never mind how the bus managed NOT to crush the car that just got in its way. But this is what we expect from this series of films. Cars yes, logic NO!

Well, with a sigh, it seemed that the film could only go up from here – and it did!  In fact not only did it get better, it got much better. It improved so much that I suddenly found myself fully immersed in the characters and the set pieces as this film turned into a kind of Ocean’s 11 for racers as our team end up in Rio with the local bad guys and the law looking for them. Yes of course the cars come and go; the testosterone levels on some of the main characters get to bursting points; and the stunts become increasingly ludicrous, but the film managed to find a great pace that made the whole thing great fun.

Walker may not be a great actor, but he fulfils his role here. He at least looks good on screen and has reduced his “dude” count from the first film. There are returning characters from all of the series (yes including Tokyo Drift) as they get a club together to take down a local villain who has double crossed them. There is a return from characters like Vince (Matt Schulze) from the first film and even leading players like Tyrese Gibson and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges from the second and it frankly is nice to have such a big group working together. Some get more screen time than others, but each has their moments. I guess the only real loser is Gal Gadot’s Gisele whose biggest contribution seems to be having her ass grabbed by the bad guy. So perhaps the women are not on winning form, but then this has pretty much always been a man’s world with the women as trophies.  Hell, even Dominic makes the local female law enforcement swoon!

It is with Diesel that the film has most of its glories. You’d hope that Johnson would bring something to his role but his performance (when speaking anyway) is laughable. Funny how his acting wavers from good (Faster – good acting but terrible action film) to piss poor (here, but a decent action film?) Still when the man is in action there is no denying his physicality. And yes, you do spend time waiting for his law man and Toretto to have a bit of a smack down which you are blissfully given.

Fans of the series will be happy to know that one of my most hated tropes of these films is here too – there are moments were we have our characters hanging out under bridges with a line-up of fast cars with their bonnets open and booty shaking woman and rap music for company. Underground culture my ass!

I was given the names of several motors that appear in this film – including one at the end that is quite rare – but they have leapt from my mind – so I will just have to return to my own personal amusement at the fact that you have so many actors in a film of this subject matter with names like Walker, Diesel, Bridges and Tyrese… What?!

But I can’t deny how much fun I had with this film – and the fact that the plot kept on surprising – never really going when you may expect it to. Yes there are a couple of character developments you can predict but the action for the better part of the film is a real thrill.  I will look forward to riding shotgun with these guys in a 6^th film!  (And if you wait into the end credits a little while you get a couple of familiar face surprises that suggest we may just get that!).

Steven Hurst