Climbing Higher Pictures

Hey guys! It’s been a while, I know. Figured you wouldn’t really miss me during the past few weeks, as Your Highness (a really fun movie) bombed out and Hanna (a really weird, disjointed movie) became a critical darling for no understandable reason. Now the summer movie season is finally upon us, and with the familiar faces of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker at the helm, does the fifth generation of the high speed franchise have what it takes to take the early lead for the season’s box office crown?

Fast Five Review

By Ryan Hamelin

Movie Grade: C+

What to do with Fast Five… On the one hand, this is a film which is entirely self-aware, knowing exactly what the audience is expecting, and delivering in a paint-by-the-numbers fashion for the majority of its runtime. On the other hand, there’s a life and vitality to the stunt-work and the big action moments that has escaped most of the genre’s recent titles, settling instead for bland and otherwise unexciting characters doing bland and unexciting things. Every dollar of Fast Five’s budget is on the screen, and one sequence in particular, involving hijacking vehicles that are being transported on a train, serves as an adrenaline-fueled start to the newest chapter in a franchise that many had considered on the ropes.

Do you need to have seen any of the other Fast and Furious movies to enjoy Fast Five? Absolutely not. Sure there are references here and there to past films, and the lack of Michelle Rodriguez’s character does generate an undercurrent of suppressed emotion for Vin Diesel, but you can pretty much piece together anything you need to fully understand the story. This is not rocket science, or even a basic level of plot complication, so don’t come into it looking to be challenged. The film consists of a vague or disconnected conversation that’s not particularly deep, followed by a revelation, followed by a one liner, followed by a loud music cue with a montage… rinse and repeat. Usually these are the kinds of moments, like in an Ocean’s film, where things really kick into high gear. With Fast Five, apparently things have to kick into high gear every ten to fifteen minutes to remind the audience that they are watching a ridiculous summer action movie. At a little over two hours in length, the film overstays its welcome by a good half an hour.

Which brings us to the cast, an interesting collection of new faces and old friends, some of whom have aged well. Vin Diesel, unfortunately, is not among them, and the confrontations between him and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson feel a little bit like the modern equivalent of Grumpy Old Men. They’re just far enough past their prime to come off as tired, and my enthusiasm for a third Riddick film has plummeted accordingly. The dialogue is not particularly atrocious, just awkward enough to be disjointed, and only Paul Walker comes out feeling genuine. Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris make good with the time they’re given, but the whole “team” dynamic doesn’t even rise to the familial camaraderie of The Italian Job. If the number of allusions to other movies is alarming to you, just remember that there is very little this franchise can do that hasn’t been done in one of the preceding four films, let alone several decades worth of other car/heist/team/thriller/action fare. You’re not going to Fast Five for the originality, and if you are, then you’re in for a major disappointment.

At the end of the day, Fast Five is a solid entry into a series of mediocre to sub-par films involving hot chicks, money, and cars. It amuses me that producers want to transition the franchise into a more heist-heavy genre for the next film, something of a foregone conclusion due to the early buzz and the big pre-release numbers, as the series is almost entirely based in early 2000s racing culture and would probably not survive the transition to a more serious plot structure. It’s pure popcorn, through and through, and even though it only consistently works when there are explosions involved, it does hold its own in all the ways you’d want it to. Make no mistake, this is not a “good” movie in any sense of the word, but if you’re like me and you can’t wait for the summer movie season to begin, this is quite the entertaining start.