Fast Five deviates from car-heist plotlines
Fifth Fast and Furious movie has the series going out with a bang.
By Kyle Benning
[news editor]
Grade: A-
The fifth instalment of The Fast and the Furious broke the U.S. weekend box office opening after picking up an astonishing $86.2 million ($33.2 million on opening day). It isn’t hard to see why.
The series, directed by Justin Lin, is in the midst of a change.
In the latest chapter, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) is on the run with his sister, Mia (Jordana Brewster) and his favourite ex-cop Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) after they break him out of a prison transport bus using a pair of cars that are in every college student’s dream.
The three of them flee to Rio de Janeiro where they meet a friendly face who sets them up for a downfall.
In an attempt to heist a couple of cars off of a train (including a silver ’66 Corvette Grand Sport and a blue ’66 Ford GT40 with white stripes) that were repossessed, the Americans find themselves in a dispute with the locals they are stealing the cars with.
Originally, the plan was to get the cars to Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), Rio’s head drug lord. But Dom changed the plans and the action got underway.
The man that was just “released” from a prison transport bus was wanted for the murder of a couple U.S. federal agents that were on the train.
Once the agency hears about this, they send their best man, agent Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), to hunt down Dom and co. and bring them to justice.
So along with being chased down by the feds, Dom, Mia and O’Conner are also being chased down by the Rio mob and the local police because majority of them are on Reyes’ payroll.
The gang is also after them because Reyes has a very important piece of his business stashed away in the GT40 that Mia sped away in.
If you’re going to watch this movie for the car races, you may be a little disappointed.
Fast Five focuses more on the “action” part of the events that characters encounter, but as promised by the trailers, there are plenty of high-speed chases and pretty girls in tight clothing.
The script doesn’t ask for the actors to put in an Oscar-nominating performance, but it looks like Diesel, Walker and Johnson put in a fair effort despite a countless number of clichés.
Make sure you stay seated during the first set of credits. You might miss something important, hint hint.
