Question, any movie which has reached its 4th sequel but still watchable and worthy of your time? Hint: exclude Star Wars and James Bond please...Not many rite? 'Saw' series has lost its path, 'Final Destination' is not getting its 'final'. While others have been rebooting themselves (a.k.a starting fresh), and they haven't even reaching no.5 yet. The remarkable U-turn of 'Fast & Furious' (FF) series was when they recalled all the original cast into making FF4. Producer has learned from no.2, Paul Walker is not a solid main action hero. While no.3 has failed to introduce a fresh start. In the end, it was concluded that FF is soulless without its main star, Vin Diesel. FF 4 was a huge hit, and its open ending was giving a new storyline to tell.
10 years since the release of 'The Fast and The Furious', here comes no.5, using the same recipe, using not just the old, but all previous characters. Now Diesel gets 8 people to do the so-called last big heist job. Of course to make it better, Diesel needs a proper nemesis from the white side. Meet Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson, as ruthless and fierce super agent Hobbs. Yes, FF 5 feels like the bad-ass hip-hop metaphor of Ocean's Eleven, just with cars and guns.
Don't expect a logical storyline, cause you won't find it here. As careful as they can be, they always leave lots of wreckage. The car racing and chasing never fails to impress, so they make it even better (or becoming more nonsense). Just watch the last car chaing scene involving big vault, then you'll get what I mean. Some scenes are ridiculously cool, you even don't have time to comment 'that is so bullshit'! Changing the scene to Rio provides some variations, and it helps the story also regarding the main villain character plot. Clearly, to take out the most powerful drug lord whose money was put into police station is clearly a mere stupid and brainless idea, but not according to Dominic Torreto (Diesel). He appears to be invincible, cocky, and arrogant...but he is THE man, you can't deny it. After all those misfire, Diesel is back to do what he does best, being a total jack-ass. O'Conner (Walker) is a grown up and more mature character, especially now he is joining the 'other' side. Mia (Jordana Brewster) is given a stronger and more important role. The rest? Well, they are good complements, every one gets their own moments to shine (even their own endings). But surely for me, Elena (Elsa Pataky) and Gisele (Gal Gadot) provide the eyecandy everytime they show up (synonym = hotties). The only downside is the unrealistic $100 million catch, which is so unambitious (even Dr. Evil made a ransom of that same value last decade!), I bet Danny Ocean will choose to walk away from this job.
It would be wasteful if you have 2 big guys but not caging them altogether, rite? Don't worry, you'll get spoiled with old fashioned macho big brawl between Diesel and Johnson, something that has been missing in modern action movies. (Ridiculously, even all of the cuts and blood on Hobbs and Dom disappear immediately after their fight). I can say this is the most suitable character Johnson has ever been playing, it looks like his muscles are ready to explode anytime.
As I mentioned before, shallow and predictable storyline are not big issues, since they are covered nicely with spectacular and well-choreographed (read: over the top) action scenes. You won't even realized that this flick runs for 2 hrs 10 min, thanks mainly to its fast pace story-telling. Overall, FF 5 is rollercoaster ride with mind numbing experience, testosterone overflown, visually absurd yet entertaining, but last but not least, it delivers what it supposed to. The upside is that the journey does not end here (hint: easter egg after credit title+surprise hottie introduction). The downside? Making drag racing even more cooler...watch your kids!
My Rating: 8.5/10
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