'Fast Five' Movie Review

Title: Fast Five

Director: Justin Lin

Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, Dwayne Johnson

Review Written by: Karen Benardello


Many action sequels today fail to captivate their audiences because the studios care more about capitalizing on their successful predecessors, instead of further developing their characters or creating any new, original stunts. However, the new action film ‘Fast Five’ proves it’s unique in the fact that the cast still cares about, and relate to, their characters and their stories. The series’ returning director, Justin Lin, who helmed the previous two installments, also honored the original ‘The Fast and the Furious’ by truly focusing on how the characters interact with each other.

‘Fast Five’ follows in the immediate aftermath of ‘Fast and Furious,’ and shows Brian O’Conner (played by Paul Walker) and girlfriend Mia Toretto (portrayed by Jordana Brewster) successfully freeing Mia’s brother Dom (played by Vin Diesel). Brian and Mia make their own way to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and wait for Dom. They are reunited with Dom on a job stealing cars, which was set up by their friend Vince (portrayed by Matt Schulze). However, the job goes wrong, and three DEA agents are killed.

The owner of the cars, corrupt business owner Hernan Reyes (played by Joaquim de Almeida) goes after Brian, Dom and Mia to get back the car they stole from him. As the three realize why Reyes wants the car back so much, DSS federal agent Luke Hobbs (portrayed by Dwayne Johnson) arrives in Rio to apprehend them. Brian, Dom and Mia, now all fugitives, call in some of their friends, including Han Lue (played by Sung Kang), Roman Pearce (portrayed by Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (played by Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges), to help them pull off one last heist on Reyes.

Bringing back many of the original characters from the first three ‘The Fast and the Furious’ films was a smart move on Lin’s part. Walker and Diesel still have a great chemistry together, and seem as though they truly care about what happens to each other. Their natural bond translates well onto the screen, making it believable that Brian would forgo his career as an FBI agent in order to save Dom from going to prison. Even though the Brian and Dom relationship is still the most believable, even after the original film debuted 10 years ago, Gibson and Bridges also seemed as though they were immediately at ease with their co-stars. Even though Gibson and Bridges only previously starred alongside Walker in the first sequel, ’2 Fast 2 Furious,’ they convincingly showed their characters still wanted to protect Brian, Dom and Mia. Roman and Tej weren’t afraid of any physical danger threatened on them by Reyes or Hobbs, as they wanted to help Brian and Dom on the heist.


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