Date Posted: May 27, 2011
Print Edition: May 27, 2011
By Ali Siemens (The Cascade) – Email
Fast cars, beautiful women, rippling muscles, and flying bullets add up to the perfect winter semester wind down. Fast Five is the latest addition to The Fast and the Furious series, bringing all the best of cast members from the other movies into one great action flick. Starring Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, and Jordana Brewster, Fast Five also brings in another badass movie star, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Although judgment day has come and gone, Fast Five fans will no doubt often feel looked down upon. Regardless, this is one of the most fun movies I’ve seen all year.
In earlier films Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and ex-cop Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) used to hate each other, but the latest film creates a new relationship for them as best buds. A love affair has risen between Mia, Dom’s sister, and Brian. The movie starts with the couple using their combined driving skills to break Dom out of jail – from there, the action just gets crazier. After Dom is “free,” the team flees to Brazil, where the laws are different, or rather, the corruption works in their favor. Dom starts getting together a team to steal cars and enough money so they can all disappear and create a new life. Lucky for audience members, actors Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, and Sung Kang all reappear in perfect working condition to help in the latest heist. High-teach goodies and pimped-out rides await.
Although Brian and Dom are best friends now, don’t forget about our other iron-pumping-bad-ass, F.B.I agent Luke Hobbs (The Rock) who is trying to bring down the hammer on these criminals. Sweating in every scene, glistening like someone rubbed him in butter, The Rock was everything Fast Five needed him to be. The best scenes were when Vin Diesel and The Rock took the stage together, rubbing against each other while they fought in the streets of Rio, the tumbling mess of muscles often lead to confusion of which bicep belonged to whom.
Although Fast Five may not be on par with say The King’s Speech or Inception, you can’t help but be on the edge of your seat, cheering through the high speed races, ducking as bullets fly, and staring at all the bulging muscles that overtake half of the IMAX screen. At the end of the day, an action flick’s purpose is to jump from one dramatic event to another and involves a bad guy. Fast Five develops these components, but super-sizes it by adding fast cars, absolutely ridiculous shoot outs in the streets of Brazil, a dramatic love element, and, like I said, so many muscles.
