Review of Fast Five (2011) by Mitchell B — 21 Sep 2014

Fast Five is without a doubt the best film is the Fast franchise. I enjoyed the Fast and The Furious as a popcorn film. I did not care for either 2 Fast 2 Furious or Tokyo Drift. I thought Fast and Furious was a step up from the previous films. However, Fast Five is on a whole other level.

The story takes place right where Fast and Furious left off. Brian O'Connor and his Mia break Toretto out of prison and are now labeled as wanted criminals. In response a Special Forces team lead by Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) are sent to bring them in. Toretto and Brian gather a team to pull of one final job, and then disappear for good.

The characters are the best aspect about the film. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker reprise their roles here. I think they turn their best performances here. Jordana Brewster returns as Mia. She does a good job with what she is given. The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) gives his best performance in a long time in this movie. To me this is the Rock's return to action movies not Faster.

All the other cast members from the previous films return here. Tyrese Gibson comes back as Roman Pierce. I did not care for Gibson in 2 Fast 2 Furious, but I do not mind him here as much. This is probably because he is a supporting character in this film, and not a main character that has to carry the film. Ludacris (Tej) and Sung Kang (Han) return as well. I never cared about those characters but they did fine in this movie. Gisele, played by Gal Gadot comes back too. She had a small role in Fast and Furious that is not even worth noting. However, I thought her character was awesome here. The character of Vincent is back from the first movie as well. I did not like his character at all in Fast and the Furious, and I did not care for him here either. He is one of the only characters that I did not like in this film. I loved seeing the cast of all the Fast films together. The interacting they all have with each other is great and very fun.

The villain, I will say is weak. That should not be a surprise at this point. The Fast films have always had weak villains. Though, I will, say, this villain is one of the stronger villains of the franchise, though that is not saying much.

The action is top-notch! The action scenes trump anything in the other Fast films. The action is different than the other films too. It focuses less on races (though there are some) and more on fist fight, fire fights, car chases, etc. This film is more of a heist movie than a racing movie. The effects for the film are also top of the line, and better than all of the other movies. The ending scene alone is worth seeing the movie for.

Overall this is a must watch for all who are fans of this franchise. This is easily the best Fast film in almost every category whether it is characters, story, action, effects, etc.