Fast Five
Year: 2011
Director: Justin Lin
Starring: Jordana Brewster, Vin Diesel, Gal Gadot, Tyrese Gibson, Dwayne Johnson, Sung Kang, Ludacris & Paul Walker
Runtime: 130 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 26/01/22
Director: Justin Lin
Starring: Jordana Brewster, Vin Diesel, Gal Gadot, Tyrese Gibson, Dwayne Johnson, Sung Kang, Ludacris & Paul Walker
Runtime: 130 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 26/01/22
Fast & Furious was a turning point for the Fast Saga wherein the attention was turned away from the driving and more towards action movie territory. It was clear that director Justin Lin wanted to move the series in a new direction to keep it from becoming stale, and even though the film itself was relatively mediocre, it did open the floodgates for numerous possibilities for the series to head in next. With Lin back in the director’s chair for the fifth entry in the series, he clearly made the decision to continue to move away from racing and turn the Fast Saga into a true mayhem fuelled action showcase with Fast Five.
Picking up where Fast & Furious ended, Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) has turned his back on the LAPD once again to aid the Toretto family evade justice. Alongside Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster), the two bust Dom (Vin Diesel) out of a prison transport bus and go into hiding in Brazil. There they reunite with Vince (Matt Schulze) who since the end of The Fast and the Furious has been in hiding; and he gets them on board with stealing some cars to net a bit of quick cash. Unfortunately, these cars belong to crime lord Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) and are also in the process of being seized by the Drug Enforcement Agency. With the theft successful, the gang are being hunted by both Reyes’ milita, and special forces agents led by Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), with the only hope of escape being to form a team with some old friends and steal Reyes’ money from a vault and use it to buy their freedom.
Picking up where Fast & Furious ended, Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) has turned his back on the LAPD once again to aid the Toretto family evade justice. Alongside Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster), the two bust Dom (Vin Diesel) out of a prison transport bus and go into hiding in Brazil. There they reunite with Vince (Matt Schulze) who since the end of The Fast and the Furious has been in hiding; and he gets them on board with stealing some cars to net a bit of quick cash. Unfortunately, these cars belong to crime lord Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) and are also in the process of being seized by the Drug Enforcement Agency. With the theft successful, the gang are being hunted by both Reyes’ milita, and special forces agents led by Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), with the only hope of escape being to form a team with some old friends and steal Reyes’ money from a vault and use it to buy their freedom.
Where the previous Fast Saga film were generally dumb fun in the sense of you could just sit back and enjoy some flashy street racing sequences, Fast Five is dumb fun in the sense that you can check your brain at the door and enjoy some explosive action sequences and incredible vehicular stunts. Considering the hard genre shift from the previous instalments, Fast Five does manage to feel like a natural progression for the series and is perhaps the most accessible entry in the series so far. Whilst it certainly helps to understand who people are and how they fit into the story at large, Fast Five does a good job at telling newcomers the basics so that they can enjoy what’s happening in the moment.
The original The Fast and the Furious was mostly enjoyable thanks to the excellent chemistry that Diesel and Walker had, and the memorable dialogue exchanges the two shared. Fast Five sees these moments return, but also allows for significantly more depth to these moments by strengthening the characters of Mia and Vince and allowing them to also share that increased attention to character development.
They aren’t the only excellent thing about Fast Five’s cast though, because most of the key characters from the previous three Fast Saga films return including 2 Fast 2 Furious’ Roman & Tej (Tyrese Gibson & Ludacris), Tokyo Drift’s Han (Sung Kang), and Fast & Furious’ Gisele, Leo & Santos (Gal Gadot, Tego Calderon & Don Omar). All of whom deliver great performances and allow their characters to be approached in new and interesting ways. Together they make an Ocean’s Eleven style rogues gallery of bandits who each have their strengths, weaknesses, and reasons why you love them.
The original The Fast and the Furious was mostly enjoyable thanks to the excellent chemistry that Diesel and Walker had, and the memorable dialogue exchanges the two shared. Fast Five sees these moments return, but also allows for significantly more depth to these moments by strengthening the characters of Mia and Vince and allowing them to also share that increased attention to character development.
They aren’t the only excellent thing about Fast Five’s cast though, because most of the key characters from the previous three Fast Saga films return including 2 Fast 2 Furious’ Roman & Tej (Tyrese Gibson & Ludacris), Tokyo Drift’s Han (Sung Kang), and Fast & Furious’ Gisele, Leo & Santos (Gal Gadot, Tego Calderon & Don Omar). All of whom deliver great performances and allow their characters to be approached in new and interesting ways. Together they make an Ocean’s Eleven style rogues gallery of bandits who each have their strengths, weaknesses, and reasons why you love them.
What doesn’t work so well in Fast Five are the villains, Reyes & Hobbs. Reyes is just as one note as Fast & Furious’ Braga and could have easily just been him all over again. It’s totally uninspired and whilst it’s serviceable for the kind of film Fast Five is, it seems disappointing to have such a similar villain with yet again no effort put into making him feel distinct. As for Hobbs, he just isn’t given enough screen time to make his mark on the film and feel like enough of an intimidating presence. He does return in future films to allow this, but taking Fast Five on its own merits he just wasn’t given enough to do, or enough depth to either love or hate him.
I would say that Fast Five is a strong return to form for the series, however considering the wildly different direction the film goes in compared to the previous four films, it feels wrong to say that it’s a return. But what I can say is that Fast Five is the strongest Walker & Diesel led film in the series thus far. Whilst I still prefer the simplicity of Tokyo Drift, Fast Five is a bucketload of fun that’ll give you the adrenaline burst you’re after and then some.
I would say that Fast Five is a strong return to form for the series, however considering the wildly different direction the film goes in compared to the previous four films, it feels wrong to say that it’s a return. But what I can say is that Fast Five is the strongest Walker & Diesel led film in the series thus far. Whilst I still prefer the simplicity of Tokyo Drift, Fast Five is a bucketload of fun that’ll give you the adrenaline burst you’re after and then some.