Fast Five – (Jon’s Take) Review

Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson): “Above all else. We don’t ever, ever, let them get in their cars.”

Good thing he was wrong as Fast Five features some of the craziest car chases in a good, long while. And essentially that’s the point of this film. If Fast Five was some dark drama between the two leads around a car, who would want to see that crap? Justin Lin pretty much outdoes the last decade of car chases here and fully establishes himself as a damn good action director, let alone a bankable one. And for all of those science nerds who love Galileo Galilei and hate films like these because “the movie defies the laws of physics“, well enjoy reading about that boring crap, because I’ll take Justin Lin, Vin Diesel, hot women and fast cars any damn day over those headaches.

While the first film some 10 years ago, was a fun updated version of those Roger Corman-produced car films from Paul Bartel (Cannonball!) or Ron Howard (East My Dust), the sequels were cash-grabs with a low brow art aspirations. Essentially, “they are what they are“. But then the series reinvented itself with Fast & Furious, aiming to be more of a action film in the old school Stallone/Schwarzenegger style than a look at the subculture of underground street racing. Big muscles, both on the leads and in the cars are always in fashion, and that’s why the last film’s reinvention worked, as well as made millions of dollars.

This continues in Fast Five, which acts as the ‘be-all, end-all’ of the franchise and of car films, and as if you cannot tell, it is. I don’t know how screenwriter Chris Morgan done it, grabbing story lines and characters from the previous sequels (especially 2 Fast 2 Furious) and cohesively brought them together. If you’re not on board with the series at film number 5, then don’t start here, but just know that Fast Five just could be the action film of 2011. Also, adding The Rock, err Dwayne Johnson gives the film an Expendables with hot-rods vibe. But it’s the thrilling heist at the end of the movie that absolutely clinches Fast Five as 1) the best of the franchise; 2) one of the craziest car chases since Ronin; and 3) is front runner for action film of 2011 (like I said earlier).

Personally, I wish this could have been the last film in the franchise since it ends on such a high note, but stay through the credits to see a prequel scene to the sixth film – and now, I cannot wait. A little uncertainty principle if there ever was one.

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