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!

The Fast And The Furious Retrospective Series - 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

Written In December 2013

Plot Summary Taken From Wikipedia

Watched by undercover Customs Agent Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes), Brian is caught by US Customs agents and is given a deal by agents Bilkins and Markham (James Remar) to go undercover and try to bring down drug lord Carter Verone (Cole Hauser) in exchange for the erasure of his criminal record. Brian agrees but only if he is given permission to choose his partner, refusing to partner with the agent assigned to watch him. Brian heads home to Barstow, California, where he recruits Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson), a childhood friend of Brian who had served jail time and is under house arrest, to help him. Pearce agrees, but only for the same deal Brian was offered, and with the help of Monica, Brian and Roman work together to take down Verone. After acquiring confiscated vehicles and being hired by Verone as his drivers, the duo return to a Customs/FBI hideout, where Roman confronts Markham over the latter’s interference with the mission. After the situation is cooled down, Brian tells Bilkins and Markham that Verone plans to smuggle the money into his private jet and fly off, but also suspects something wrong with Monica’s role in the mission.

Sometime later, Brian and Rome race two other would-be Verone drivers for their cars and begin to devise a personal back up plan if the operation goes awry. Rome confronts Brian about his attraction to Monica and the constant threat of Verone’s men. On the day of the mission, Brian and Roman begin transporting duffel bags of Verone’s money, with Enrique (Mo Gallini) and Roberto (Roberto Sanchez) riding along. Before the 15-minute window is set, the detective in charge, Whitworth (Mark Boone, Jr.), decides to call in the police to move in for the arrest, resulting in a high-speed chase across the city. The duo lead the police to a warehouse, where a scramble by dozens of street racers disorient the police. Following the scramble, police manage to pull over the Evo and the Eclipse, only to find out that they were driven by two members of Brian’s new crew, Tej Parker (Ludacris) and Suki (Devon Aoki), respectively.

As Brian approaches the destination point, Enrique tells him to make a detour away from the airfield. Meanwhile, Roman gets rid of Roberto by using an improvised ejector seat powered by nitrous oxide. At the airfield, Customs Agents have Verone’s plane and convoy surrounded, only to discover they are duped into a decoy maneuver while Verone is at a boat yard several miles away. As he knew Monica was an undercover agent, he gave her the wrong information on the destination point and plans to use her as leverage. When Brian arrives at the intended drop-off point, Enrique prepares to kill him when Roman suddenly appears and the both of them dispatch of Enrique. Verone makes his escape aboard his private yacht, but Brian and Roman use the Camaro and drive off a ramp at high-speed, crashing on top of the yacht. The duo manage to apprehend Verone and save Monica. With their crimes pardoned, Brian and Roman ponder on what to do next other than to settle in Miami when Brian mentions starting a garage. Roman asks how they would afford that and Brian reveals that he took some of the money, as Roman also reveals that his pockets aren’t empty, having taken money for himself.

1st Question: Does this movie have a dumb title?

Answer:

2nd Question: Is this movie better than The Fast and The Furious?

Answer:

PROS:

• the action is SOOOOOO much better!
• the tone of the movie is almost an action comedy at times, and I adore it!
• the film is actually a bit more intimidating than Rick Yune.
• Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibson are just as great as Paul and Vin were, though the Tyrese dynamic is definitely more comedic than the one with Vin.
• Ludacris is great!
• DIRECTION WITH SOUL!
• A SENSE OF FUCKING HUMOR!

CONS:

• the cars are clearly CG during the first race and I kind of prefer a more realistic look
• while he is more intimidating at times, this villain still doesn’t have any quirks or qualities that make him memorable, which was an issue with Rick Yune as well.
• This is a really dumb title!

Overall Rating, 8 out of 10, it’s stupid popcorn entertainment that does it’s job perfectly!