{"id":1393,"date":"2011-04-28T20:29:45","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T03:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=1393"},"modified":"2011-04-28T20:29:45","modified_gmt":"2011-04-29T03:29:45","slug":"review-fast-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=1393","title":{"rendered":"Review: FAST FIVE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Every problem you have can be solved with a car.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the recurring themes explored ad nauseam in \u201cFast Five,\u201d the fifth film in the lucrative \u201cFast and Furious\u201d series that started back in 2001. When Vin Diesel and Paul Walker reprised their roles of Dom and Brian in 2009\u2019s \u201cFast & Furious\u201d the enormous box office haul of that film made this one necessary. So this time, in addition to Dom and Brian, many characters from previous sequels return to partake in the box office bonanza. Atlanta\u2019s own Ludacris, who greeted a cheering crowd at the Atlanta press screening, joins the new team as does Tyrese Gibson and Sung Kang. Walker\u2019s character\u2019s love interest Mia (played by Jordana Brewster) is back in good form along with two new fetching women played by Gal Gadot and Elsa Pataky. And the girls in the movie are more than just window dressing; they leave a good impression in what passes for a story. No doubt that folks exiting the theater after seeing \u201cFast Five\u201d will be Googling these shapely gals.<\/p>\n

New to the mix is Dwayne Johnson, once known to us as \u201cThe Rock,\u201d who has certainly regained his intimidating physical form. He plays Hobbs, an FBI agent hunting fugitives Dom and Brian, who have found safe haven in Rio de Janeiro. Johnson\u2019s bulging muscles dwarf Diesel\u2019s certainly impressive build, and when the two clash, it makes for one sweaty and destructive battle. <\/p>\n

The story is essentially a heist film as Dom and Brian assemble a crack team to steal hundred million dollars from a major criminal. Of course their plan involves cars. \u2018Nuff said\u2026.<\/p>\n

The reason \u201cFast Five\u201d works is two-fold: (1) the audience expects over the top action and corny melodrama; and (2) once the craziness reaches what you think is its zenith, it goes farther and faster. The more outrageous it becomes the more impossible the film is to criticize. But taking the intentionally ridiculous approach doesn\u2019t always work as the recently released \u201cScream 4\u201d colorfully showed us. Because things are kept tongue-in-cheek, the filmmakers clearly want us to sit back and enjoy the ride. At one point in \u201cFast Five,\u201d a large safe is drug behind two muscle cars through the streets of Rio. This naturally lays a huge swath of destruction in the ensuing wake. As the police pursue this larger than life wrecking ball, we\u2019re continuously reminded that these are crooked cops. That statement is clearly meant to soften the blow as the convoy of police car after police car crashes and burns.<\/p>\n

If you see \u201cFast Five,\u201d you\u2019ll get exactly what you expect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan thinks that the movie is agreeably outrageous. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1397,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions\/1397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}