Fast Five
At a certain point, the majority of big-budget action franchises have to decide whether or not they want to keep doing what they’ve been doing, or if they should expand a bit more. If they’ve been generally successful, why should they fix what isn’t broken? At the same time, will the series run its course by limiting itself to the same ideas and tropes as before? For the Fast & Furious franchise, this film was that inflexion point. Should they keep making movies with a primary focus on racing, or should the movies start using the fast cars as tools for the action? Thankfully, they went with the second option. Instead of limiting themselves to another racing movie, they created an action/adventure movie that just so happen to have fast cars.
Released in 2011, Fast Five picks up immediately where Fast & Furious left off. After Brian and Mia free Dom from his prison transport, all three of them are now on the run. Eventually, they find themselves in Rio de Janeiro. When a job goes wrong, Dom, Brain, and Mia are now being hunted by the drug lord Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) and his henchman. After Mia tells Brain and Dom that she’s pregnant, they realize that they need to create new lives for themselves in a place where they can be free. They decide their best course of action is to rob Hernan Reyes of his over $100M fortune. In addition to avoiding Hernan Reyes and his men, they also must avoid DSS Agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), who is tasked with bringing them to justice when they are accused of killing federal agents.
While Fast & Furious might have reignited the popularity of the franchise, Fast Five is what set it ablaze. Not only did it perform well at the box office, critics gave it high praise. Director Justin Lin and his team completely reworked the formula for the franchise. This movie is a full blown action movie, rather than one focused on street racing and car culture. This can be seen in the fact that there’s only one legitimate race shown in the movie. At one point, they set up to have a race sequence, but then they just cut to afterwards when Brian and Dom won and brought back their new car. The rest of the action consists of chases, heists, and one-on-one fights. There’s even a big fight between Dom and Hobbs, because you can’t have a movie with Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson without having them fight at least once. Some could call it an unnecessary muscle-fueled rage fest. I prefer to call it one of my favorite parts of the movie.
Much of the praise for this movie has to go to the ensemble cast who all get their own moments to shine. In order to pull off this big hist, Brian and Dom call upon some of their old friends… I mean, family. This cast consists of Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce, Ludacris as Tej Parker, Sung Kang as Han Lue, Gal Gadot as Gisele Yashar, Tego Calderon as Leo, and Don Omar as Santos. The rest of the supporting cast is made of Matt Schulze as Vince and Elsa Pataky as Elena Neves, a patrol officer recruited by Hobbs as his translator who helps him on his mission. Every single one of these characters is given their time to shine. It’s actually pretty impressive. With a big cast like this, it’s easy for some characters to be given more screentime than others. Sometimes the characters you want to so more aren’t given much to do. Not with this movie. It feels like everyone is given the chance to contribute to the story. Not only that, all of them are a joy to watch. Special praise has to go to Dwayne Johnson as Hobbs. He is by far the best addition to this movie, and the franchise as a whole.
Similar to its predecessor, Fast Five is able to tell a story, rather than just having a bunch of action sequences and explosions. It establishes motivations for the characters, mostly just Brian, Mia, and Dom. It does feel like the other characters are involved just because they were called upon and like the reward. Regardless, Brian, Mia, and Dom have real stakes involved with this heist. With Mia now pregnant, they need to find a way to get out of this life they’re in. They can’t keep running as fugitives. Not only that, but Brian is scared about the idea of becoming a father. Early in the movie, there’s a touching scene between Brian and Dom where they talk about their own fathers. Brian doesn’t know anything about his, and Dom remembers everything about his. You can see how Brian is scared about making the same mistakes as his father. You don’t always see moments like this in these big-budget action movies.
Of course, it’s not just the characters and the story that make this movie stand out. The action gets cranked up way more than the previous films. Since those movies tended to focus more on racing, the action sequences were rather limited with what they could do. With Fast Five, you have this dune buggy type of thing ramming into a train, you have shootouts in the slums of Rio, and you have Brian and Dom rushing through Rio with a giant vault behind them. These are just a few of the action packed scenes you get to see. Since the series focus shifted from car culture to action storytelling, the filmmakers are able to get way more creative with what they want to try. It really shows.
Returning for his third film, Justin Lin continues to take every effort to use practical effects as much as he can. If realism is what you’re going for, there’s no substitute for using actual cars, drivers, and other big props. He still found ways to blend some CGI elements with the actual set, but the end result doesn’t look cheap and fake. Even the vault heist used actual vault props and shells to make everything look like it was happening for real. There’s a shot in that sequence that shows a police car getting its top ripped off by the chain pulling the vault. This was done with a real car and a very short stunt driver. This commitment to practical effects is what make not only this movie stand out, but the franchise as a whole. Not all big-budget action franchises use practical effects like this one does.
While this movie excels in many areas, it does have its faults. With the core group of characters being hunted down by two different people, sometimes it’s difficult to keep up with what’s going on and who’s who. There are a few scenes where they are evading both Hernan Reyes’ men and Luke Hobbs and his team, but it isn’t always clear who is with which group and which ones are actually chasing Brian, Dom, and Mia. Despite all this, I do like the actual plot of these two groups coming after Brian, Dom, and their family. It just lends itself to some confusion and a lot of moving parts that don’t always make sense. Additionally, some of the acting and action do feel a bit corny. While I love the fight between Dom and Hobbs, I can admit it feels a little over-the-top. That isn’t always a bad thing, though. Some movies might have made the fight way shorter than it is in this movie. I think letting it run for a while makes it so much better.
As much as I love the supporting characters in Brian and Dom’s crew, they still aren’t given a lot to do outside of their established roles within the crew. Yes, each of them get their own time to shine, but it’s limited to a couple scenes for each of them, at most. Other than that, they all act as a certain character role. Gisele is the tough eye-candy, Tej is the tech guy, and Roman is the smart-mouthed guy who delivers cheesy one-liners. It’s tough to give these ensemble characters a lot to do in the allotted time given to these movies. You’re really only able to focus on a few key characters, then let everyone else assume their given role. However, most other movies would just give these characters a few lines, at most. At least Fast Five lets its character own their scenes. The characters might only be given a couple scenes to shine, but these scenes are unique to them.
I’m sure there are some arguments to be made for this movie not actually being the best in the franchise. However, I can’t think of any. This movie single-handedly brought a failing franchise back into the spotlight and made it good. The action, storytelling, and enduring characters all come together to create a fantastic spectacle. Not only that, the music needs special praise, as well. The score keeps you engaged with the action, and the songs played throughout get you moving like you’re at a concert. Honestly, if the series had ended here, I think that would’ve been perfect. This feels like a natural conclusion to what was established before it. By no means does this mean I think the movies that come after this one are unnecessary or pointless. You can just think of those as the next installments in a new story arc. Looking back at all of what makes this movie so great, it’s easy for this one to be my favorite in the whole franchise.
