I have to admit up front, for better and worse I love big, dumb, fun, action movies. While the granddaddy of them all will probably forever be Torque, there’s always room for something new. So long as there are lots of car crashes, outlandish stunts, and loads of unintentional humor, I’m always game. This weeks’ entry into the canon that cannot be stopped comes from a long line of successors in excess – Fast Five.
Having now directed the last three Fast and… um, Fast &... err… films in the series, Justin Lin has really shown signs of figuring out how to piece together a spectacular action sequence. While the cast may look like they’re having a lot of fun, some of that is taken away by screenwriter Chris Morgan’s dialogue, who happens to be getting to spend his own time in the spotlight this week.
Okay, so that isn’t really the same guy responsible for bringing us some hilariously bad and even some surprisingly good screenplays at the turn of a dime. But Wanted was a total blast, Cellular was the best movie Paul Walker never made, and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift had its moments even without a single original cast member. Weirdly, Fast & Furious was the first attempt to bring back the whole crew yet seemed stuck in idle way too often. In Fast Five, Lin and Morgan reteam for what ultimately plays out like the series’ greatest hits collection.
Fast Five starts immediately where the end of Fast & Furious cuts to credits. Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) has been sentenced to Lompoc Prison but is rescued by Brian O’Conner (Walker) and Dom’s sister Mia (Jordana Brewster). The resulting bus crash even being poked fun at that there was not one tragedy. Now the three are on the run in Brazil and have decided to go on a job with Vince (Matt Schulze, returning for the first time since the original). At least this film has no singing birds and is thankfully not in 3-D.
This time they’re stealing some high end cars off a moving train. Faster than you can say, “vroom,” double crosses rear their heads, Vince goes missing, and now the trio must find out why Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) wants one of the cars so badly. Turns out there’s a chip with all of Reyes’ drug trafficking stops on it and now the merry band of misfits want to clear their names, after Reyes’ men killed DEA agents back on the train, in exchange for his chip back.
Article comments