Fast Five deals with troubles of identity and becomes pointless but highly entertaining...

Rating: 6/10 (29 May 2011)

When I first saw the first movie of this series, I said to myself "Yes, Julian, good entertainment like never before". After all these years, Fast Five is promoted as being the last one, the grand finale, the ultimate conclusion to the story of our horse-power rider heroes. Fast Five detach itself from the racing plague and transforms into another heist movie which bring nothing new except a few really entertaining chase scenes. So where to begin? The story starts with the planned break-out of Dominic (Vin Diesel) who was convicted for 25 years in jail. It starts with a ridiculous stunt but I got over it fastly. The group then ends up in Brasil and gets into trouble while trying to steal 3 cars from a moving train. The chase itself, the whole operation is entertaining but impossible, deadly and the last but not the least, hilarious in real life. You get the feeling you're watching scenes from 2012. However, Dom, Brian (Paul Walker), Mia (Jordana Brewster) and Vince (Matt Schulze) deal with real issues after they find out they stole an important cip which was hidden in one of the cars owned by an even more important person in Rio. The most feared and powerful drug dealer, Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida). Nothing impressive wait? Oh wait. The "FBI dudes" from the States sent one of the best teams in Rio to catch them. This elite task is ran by Luke Hobbs (Dwyane Johnson) which is pretty much the old-school, hand-by-hand tough guy. The movie moves pretty fast. We get to find out that Mia is pregnant so of course, Dom and Briand head out for the most clicheic "last job" ever. They get to reunite with all their friends from the previous movies, Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson), Tej Parker (Ludacris) and Han Lue (Sung Kang). They give green lights for a plan to steal Reyes's drug money. We get the usual guy who wants to get out but once he finds out the kind of money involved he gets back in, we get to see few actual races, some nice beautiful women, big men acting all like a bunch of wrestlers and showing their muscles and we'll even get the bad guy joining the good guys. We're also given, I think, the biggest death toll in this series.
As far as their plans, there's no real in-depth look. We're just given small pieces and the rest we must figure for ourselves even some matches don't fit this whole pretentious job. With all the cons we still are entertained and the last part of the movie, the final confrontation actually pays it off even if it gets a little bit cheesy with the sentimental nonsense. As for the acting part, I had one big problem with Dwyane Johnson's delivery. His lines always felt forced like he was reading the script or something. I love The Rock but I still think as an actor... he's still at the beginning.
The technical part of the movie is quite impressive. Tough chase scenes, crazy stunts and good fight sequences. I had a problem with some effects like the train wagon explosion. Far from being realistic enough. I also had problems with the lightning and with the continuous and repeating use of wide-city shots between certain scenes. It's the easiest way to make a transition between scenes. It's a cinematographer weakness, especially in a movie like this which has the possibility of looking much much better. The music was pretty good, intense and fitted the atmosphere.
Overall, Fast Five was a disappointment as far as a Fast & Furious movie. Fast Five was a disappointment as far as an overall heist movie because of the overused clicheic pieces of story. Fast Five was a disappointment as far as the ridiculous action scenes in it. Despite all that, despite the negative view I have on it I must admit I was entertained. It was a good time. Now, Fast Five deals with troubles of identity. It feels like the last one but it leaves room for another one. And since we already know they'll make another one I have some questions? Why the misleading marketing? Why the misleading point of the movie? Why did they had to make it pointless?