Fast Five: Review By Dan

Release Date: April 29th, 2011

Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Ludacris, Tyrese, etc etc

Director: Justin Lin

Now while I'm still not thrilled with the idea of Justin Lin handling the next Terminator movie (I'd prefer that series to just stop, a notion I'm betting several people here probably disagree with. Oh well), Fast Five is definitely this guy's element. We've had three sequels since the original before this 5th outing, but somehow, some way, this series' chrome shine has lost none of it's luster. If anything, it seems to be improving with each film. It's still firing on all cylinders, as the original film's DVD case says, and 2011 seems to be the year of Rio De Janeiro.

But before I jump into the praising of the film, let me get the negatives out of the way, as there were some. The dialog, for one, is maybe the cheesiest of the series. There seemed to be many times where the back and forth between characters was completely eye rolling and stupidly obvious, and there were a few times where it *almost* ruined an action scene for me. I say almost, because it didn't in the end, thankfully. Taking that into consideration, though, that worries me if this is to be the director to take on the future of our favorite cyborg killers. We've already had the cheesy humor bullsh*t in T3 and T4, I'm sick of that, and I hope I'm proven wrong in the future over my concerns.

Moving along, I also didn't like some of the unrealistic, but movie-predictable plot lines, such as one harrowing foot chase sequence on the roofs of the favelas in the heart of Rio, and once this chase has concluded, instead of splitting up, *spoiler alert* Mia announces she's pregnant with Brian's child, and suddenly it's huggliesville and smiley time. I'm sorry, but if you had the f*cking Rock chasing your ass with a bunch of spec ops commandos, you wouldn't have time for a cornball family group hug. And then of course there was the moment where *spoiler again* Dom and Brian save Hobbs (Johnson) who would have otherwise been screwed, and suddenly there is an understanding between all parties. I get that that bit in the movie happened so that we could see The Rock working 'with' Diesel and gang, but I was more hoping he'd be the hardcore honest cop to the end instead.

Ok, now that I've got the things I didn't care for out of the way, let's jump into the good stuff! How about those action sequences, eh? Though the movie came out at the end of April, and many view this coming weekend's Thor as the official kick off for summer blockbusters, it seems like Fast Five got into the nearest muscle car and drove off with, pardon the pun all things considered, Thor's beginning of summer thunder. And where the previous installment's stunts sometimes felt a little too CGI laced, Five plays it a little more authentic looking, with walls crashed into by bodies or vehicles, and realistic foot chases. Nobody can complain with Five's climax, either, as it features maybe the most vehicular and building destruction I've seen in a film since, well, probably Terminator 3.

It also felt like the film 'shifted gears' halfway into it, becoming a regular Ocean's Eleven, with the story's central heist taking front stage. There is a certain amount of continuity here from the previous installments that should make everyone happy, and I'll say this much: for once, I did not absolutely loathe Tyrese. I'm sorry, but the guy usually gets under my skin with his obnoxious and corny attitude, but thankfully Fast Five is executed in such a way that he wasn't allowed to ruin the experience for me, and that ultimately put Fast Five at the finish line ahead of 2Fast 2Furious, Tokyo Drift, and Fast n Furious. I also enjoyed how they figured out how to make Mia Toretto relevant with the entire heist, as she is the 'Oracle' type character (Batman fans should know what I mean with that) here, guiding everyone as the plans are executed.

So while Fast Five definitely has its faults, it's easily a strong start to what looks to be a promising summer, and I'm curious to see how the inevitable Fast Six plays out now. Be sure to stick around for the post credits scene, and get ready to make your :O faces :P

Final Grade: B-