The fine folks behind the “Fast and the Furious” franchise came to a shocking realization in the middle of their latest effort, “Fast Five.”
Their core characters are a pretty dull lot.
So the film’s producers whipped out their took kit and tweaked the formula. The result? A lean, mean sequel that’s just as dumb as the previous installments. But when those cars are screeching and our heroes are throwing haymakers, not a soul in the theater will give a dang.
The film opens with “Fast” regulars Dom (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker) and Mia (Jordana Brewster) wanted by the FBI for all the mayhem they perpetrated over the previous installments. They flee the U.S. for Rio de Janeiro where they decide to pull off one last car theft to line their bank accounts.
Being a fugitive isn’t cheap.
The “easy money” score goes badly, and suddenly our antiheroes are being pursued by not only the FBI but a Brazilian kingpin (Joaquim de Almeida) with tentacles throughout the local police department.
To even up the odds, Dom, Brian and Mia assemble a crack team of old colleagues (including Tyrese Gibson and rapper Ludacris) to beat the kingpin at his own game by stealing all his money. Every illegal cent.
Dwayne “don’t call me the Rock” Johnson joins the “Furious” crew as the FBI agent tasked with bringing the gang to justice. Johnson is a perfect fit for the franchise. He’s roughly the size of the Great Wall of China with a chest so massive the bullet proof vest his character wears seems superfluous. Beads of sweat pop out of his forehead whenever Johnson barks orders to his underlings. He glistens so intensely there must have been a sweat wrangler on set at all times.
Naturally, Johnson and Diesel duke it out at one point, but the real attraction here is the stuntwork which manages to upstage every car wreck from the previous “Furious” installments. Director Justin Lin may show little interest in characterization, but he’s a whiz at staging jaw-dropping crashes that put audiences right into the action.
Sure, Lin never studied phyiscs in high school if his directorial swagger is indication, but the scenes pack a visceral wallop.
And then you have the “Furious” franchise players, so exhausted by the elaborate stunt work they had no energy left to work their facial muscles. Walker sports the same blank expression for 98 percent of the movie, and Diesel is similarly disinterested in emoting.
That’s where the B team comes in. The supporting players assembled mid-film are a hoot, chock full of funny lines and funnier bits. We even get a running gag about buttocks smacking that doesn’t feel as misogynistic as one might think. The cast additions supercharge the otherwise stale second act and set up the humdinger of a finale.
“Fast Five” runs like an atomic clock, rumbling past calcified performances and logic free stunts to bludgeon us into a stupor. And, wouldn’t you know, it’s a pretty good ride to numb-dom.
Byline: Photo Credit: Jaimie Trueblood. Copyright: Copyright: © 2011 Universal Studios. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m pretty sure we come to Vin Diesel for his fairly immobile face; it’s usually a part of his characters (though, on the advice of several gearhead friends, I haven’t followed the F&F series). Riddick, for instance, is 90% just the fact his expression barely changes even when he’s slaughtering hordes of death-worshipers.
Besides, you gotta love a guy who responds to the question “Sith or Jedi?” with “Chaotic Neutral.”
I’m curious how much of a CGI budget was to make Vin Diesel look as big as The Rock. Diesel isn’t all that big … The Rock is a farkin’ monster. Yet in the film they look similarly sized.
Sounds like a good popcorn flick, will be going to see it tonight.
This franchise never appealed to me, when the car stunts are reduced to CGI or at least enhanced with it then you lose me.
Give me real car stunts done with real cars driven by real people, I’ll take Smokey and the Bandit any day.
My son is very excited to see this – ‘lots of cars, car chases, (hopefully) not much mushy girl stuff, and not much plot.
To my slightly trained eye, the car crashes here seemed much more real than CGI. Maybe it’s so slick that I missed something, but part of the fun here is that it felt old fashioned that way.
Any franchise that utilizes a boss 68 Dodge Charger is worth a viewing!
Diesel’s pretty big, actually, probably a little over or under 6′—which is admittedly 4-5 inches shorter than The Rock. But I think Diesel might actually be slightly heavier for his size.
I’m uncertain how to feel about this matchup; these two guys’ action-”schtick” is too similar. Though then again having them on opposite sides might be designed to work with that.
Toto,one wonders what precise level of emoting you movie critics expect from action stars being tough manly men in a dangerous world!It never fails to amaze me when I see the standard,boring,run of the mill review whining about the wooden performances and lack of character development of whatever the latest action extravaganza is opening at the box office.Are you guys disappointed about the total lack of complaining about sand in their vaginas from these real men?Do they need to cry to seem “authentic” to you?I just saw this film,and I can assure you we saw two different movies!The emotional characterizations were spot on,as was the character development.Did you not see Brian ask Dom about his father,the insecurity in both his voice and eyes,the worry that he could turn out to be an absent father like his own was?Did you miss Dom’s gentle reassurance that he believed Brian would be a better father than that?Were you getting a drink refill at that moment?Or could it be that you’ve seen so many scenes that you’ve become somewhat desensitized to regular normal human emotion,and for it to be noticeable to you,it must be much more bombastic and overt?To Opus,I agree!THESE stunts are NOT CGI,though.Absolutely REAL!Thebutlerdidit…it is a 1970 Dodge Charger(wraparound front bumper,not a chin bumper like ‘68 and ‘69).
Scshawn – I watched the movie carefully and saw stone-faced actors attempt to bring some humanity to the characters. Nice try, guys.
If you want to see quality acting in an action film rent something with Liam Neeson or Mel Gibson. Heck, even Ah-nold delivers in “T2″ in his own robotic way.
And if you think Diesel and Walker are acting up a storm, just compare them to Gibson and the others added to the story mid-movie. Night and day.
Toto,thanks for the quick response.I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree…I go to a film like this expecting more action than emotion,and am pleasantly surprised when I receive both.I agree with Tom in Arizona…Diesel gets work precisely because of his stoneface,not in spite of it.Same goes for Paul Walker.As a moviegoer and fan,I expect a minimum level of emotionless,serious,focused stares from my action stars as they confront their circumstances.I require it.I can’t take them seriously as authentic men of action without it.I agree with you on the quality of Liam and Mel’s performances,but they too have been very successful at being very stonefaced.Taken and Payback are the fist examples I can think of.My point is,sometimes emotionless IS the act,and I genuinely believe Vin and Paul successfully pulled off their roles while subtly revealing the turmoil bubbling under the surface.I know this sounds ridiculous to say about a freakin’ Fast and Furious flick that SHOULD be throwaway entertainment,but that’s what I saw!Tyrese,Ludacris,Don Omar,and the rest were nothing more than comic relief.They’re the ones that didn’t receive character development…other than “We had a life before we met you!”.Perhaps we’ll get to explore that in future films.I hope so.I also was impressed with Justin Lim’s work making this film.If I were the studio head at Universal,I wouldn’t hesitate to cut this dude a check as blank as you say Diesel’s and Walker’s faces were to make many,many more just like it!Thanks for the spirited debate…I hope in some small way I’ve persuaded you,however marginally,that maybe these guys didn’t suck quite as badly as initially thought.If not,sorry I failed,but the movie sure entertained the hell out of me!
Sorry,Justin Lin,not Lim…and first examples,not fist examples!