The Fast And The Furious Retrospective Series - Fast Five (2011)

Written In December 2013

Plot Summary Taken From Wikipedia

Following the events of Fast & Furious, when Dominic is being transported to a U.S. prison, Mia and Brian lead an assault on the bus, causing it to crash and free Dominic. While authorities search for them, the trio escape to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Awaiting Dominic’s arrival, Mia and Brian join their friend Vince and other participants on a job to steal three cars from a train. The job goes awry when Brian and Mia discover the train is carrying DEA agents and that the cars are seized property. When Dominic arrives with the rest of the participants, he realizes that one of them, Zizi is only interested in stealing one car: the Ford GT40. Dominic has Mia steal the car herself, while Brian and Dominic fight Zizi and his henchmen, with Zizi killing the DEA agents assigned to the vehicles. Dominic and Brian are captured and brought to Zizi’s boss, who orders the pair be interrogated to discover the location of the car. However, they manage to escape and retreat to their safehouse.

Dominic, Brian, and Mia are blamed for the murder of the DEA agents and U.S. DSS agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and his team arrive in Rio to capture him. While Brian, Dominic and Mia examine the car to discover its importance, Vince arrives and is revealed to be working for Reyes when he removes a computer chip from the car. Dominic forces Vince to leave and, after investigating the chip, Brian discovers it contains details of Reyes’ criminal empire including the locations of $100 million in cash, and plan on stealing Reyes’ money to start a new life. The trio organize a team to perform the heist, recruiting Han, Roman, Tej, Leo, Santos, Gisele and Vince. Hobbs and his team eventually find and arrest Dominic, Mia, Brian and Vince. While transporting them to an airport for extradition to the United States, the convoy is attacked by Reyes’ men, killing Hobbs’ team and Vince. Hobbs is saved by Dominic, Brian and Mia as they fight back against Reyes’ men and escape. Wanting revenge for their murdered team, Hobbs and Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky) agree to help with the heist.

The gang breaks into the police station where Reyes’ money is kept and tear the vault from the building using their cars, dragging it through the city with police in pursuit. Believing they cannot outrun the police, Dominic makes Brian continue on without him while he attacks the police and the pursuing Reyes, using the vault attached to his car to smash their vehicles. Brian returns to kill Zizi, while Reyes is badly injured by Dominic’s assault. Hobbs arrives on the scene and executes Reyes. Hobbs refuses to let the pair go free, but unwilling to arrest the team, agrees to give them a 24-hour head start to escape. The gang split Reyes’ money, with Dominic leaving Vince’s share to his family, and they go their separate ways. In a post-credits scene, Hobbs is given a special file by Agent Monica Fuentes concerning the hijacking of a military convoy in Berlin. In the file, Hobbs discovers a recent photo of Letty, who was presumed deceased, revealing she survived the events of Fast & Furious.

My Reaction To This Movie’s Ending:

My Reaction To This Movie’s Real Ending:

What Did I Think Of This Movie Overall? 

Now onto the actual review.

PROS:

• Dwayne Johnson is in this movie.
• Dwayne Johnson is awesome in this movie.
• Dwayne Johnson fights Vin Diesel in this movie.
• Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, the two Latino guys from the last movie, Gal Gadot, and Sung Kang are all back in this movie.
• Eva Mendes is in this movie.
• The action kicks some serious ass.
• The score is really good.
• The fight between Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel isn’t just awesome because it’s Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson, it’s also awesome because it’s well choreographed, well lit, uses no shaky cam, and has actual stakes.
• Paul Walker and Jordana Brewster are not given short shrift in this film.
• Gal and Sung have great chemistry.
• Mia is pregnant and this is handled well.

CONS:

• As always, the biggest con first and foremost, is the lack of an interesting villain. You could Hobbs is a villain, but he’s only an antagonistic presence for half of the film.
• Not a con within the film itself, but after seeing Gal in this film, I’m thinking less Wonder Woman, and more Catwoman. This concerns me somewhat.

Overall this film was an excellent action picture, and I can’t wait to check part 6 where we are FINALLY introduced to an actual villain, but for now I’m going to give Fast Five a 9.5 out of 10!