It’s in Rio, but there aint no dancing parrots! – Swift
Oh great….another installment in the “Fast and the Furious” series. More street racing, more scantily-clad women, more fast cars and more meat-head guys right?? Wrong!! This is number five and probably the second best film in the series (after the original). I thought the franchise was tired and done, but I was pleasantly surprised with “Fast Five”.
At the end of “Fast and Furious” (part four), Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) is headed to jail. Suddenly, cars zoom up to the prison bus and the film ends. Fast forward to the beginning of part five. Here comes former cop Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker, who has come a long, long way from 1998’s “Meet the Deedles”) and Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) to break him out of custody. Once Dom is free, they head to Rio de Janeiro, where they meet up with their old friend Vinnie (Matt Schulze – “The Fast and the Furious”). Vinnie convinces them to help him with a job – stealing fancy, fast cars from a corrupt businessman Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) (who also pretty much rules Rio de Janeiro). Needless to say, the job goes terribly wrong and Dom, Brian, and Mia are now really, really wanted criminals. Enter federal agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) who always finds who he is looking for. He enlists the assistance of local cop Elena (Elsa Pataky) to track down the fugitives.
With nowhere to go, and wanted by both the feds and Reyes, they decide to pull one last job to guarantee their freedom – steal $100 million dollars from Reyes. But they can’t do it alone, so they assemble a team of experts, comprised of characters from the previous installments, including Roman (Tyrese Gibson – “2 Fast 2 Furious”), Tej (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges – “2 Fast 2 Furious”, Han (Sung Kang – “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” and “Fast and Furious”), and Gisele (Gal Gadot – “Fast and Furious).
“Fast Five” was like “Ocean’s Eleven” on speed. The theatre was packed, and everyone was really into the movie. And who wouldn’t be, with nonstop action, fast cars, high-speed thrills, crazy stunts, and…wait for it…a fantastic fight scene between Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson (I’ve waited so long for this one!!) . Don’t leave when the credits begin because there is an interesting scene that may possibly be a lead-in to a sixth installment. As for what is revealed, it’s a doozy!! If you’re a fan of the series you will not be disappointed with “Fast Five”!
