The Fast and the Furious franchise delivers "Fast Five" which is pretty much exactly what you thought it would be. Watch the trailer below and you will get a lot of the key elements of the film. I joked with a friend prior to the screening that I was expecting it to be like "Ocean's Eleven", which is close. A more accurate description is "Ocean's Twelve" meets "the Italian Job". With rumors already hitting the streets that the filming of a sixth and final volume in the series will be starting summer it is not a surprise that this film will get a large audience.
"Fast Five" delivers in the ways you expect it to with fast cars, explosions, fist fights, and of course attractive women. The script borrows heavily from the "Ocean's" franchise and the acting is not why you would go to see this film. Vin Diesel still has the muscles, Paul Walker has the dreamy blue eyes, and Jordana Brewster gets the teenage boys excited. This time around they are joined by Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson who knows how to sell a fight scene, Tyrese Gibson who has the muscles and the winning smile, Chris 'ludacris' Bridges who gives some street credibility, and several others that made appearances in the previous four volumes. With an ensemble cast like this you can see why the comparison to any of the "Ocean's" movies could be made.
Along with the larger cast and the apparent plans for a sixth and final volume comes a longer run time that reaches over 2 hours where the previous volumes stuck around the more reasonable 100 minute area. There are clearly some scenes that could have been edited without taking away from the overall story, and there are a couple times where it seemed as if they did just that by taking away racing scenes. Overall, not a very technically sound film, but again you aren't going to see this movie for that reason.
I wanted to find something that is a little film geek for everyone and what I noticed was several shots that reminded me of the film "Elite Squad" (2007). Both are based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and involve the corruption of the police and drug lords who run the slums. You could almost use that as the background for the Officer Elena character played by Elsa Pataky.
3 Quacks are more than appropriate for this movie and I could even argue with myself enough to give it 4 Quacks. I feel comfortable recommending folks that like a bucket of popcorn and 32 ounces of cola to go see "Fast Five" this weekend.
PS - do you believe in ghosts? stay during the credits to find out...
(screening date 4/26/11, release date 4/29/11, location AMC Mazza Gallerie)
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