Kudos to the Fast and Furious franchise. After a successful first film, 2 Fast 2 Furious made the mistake of focusing on Paul Walker's character instead of Vin Diesel's. (Maybe Vin was busy doing xXx at the time.) Then Tokyo Drift happened and virtually everyone involved in the original movie was completely absent. The movie didn't make back its budget in the U.S. and no one really expected the franchise to live on any further. Then something must have happened to the respective careers of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker and Jordana Brewster, because all of a sudden there was going to be a fourth Fast and Furious movie with all the original actors. That movie lived up to (and exceeded) every expectation I could have had. And thus, Fast Five was green-lit. And now the Rock is in the fold. And now apparently Michelle Rodriguez may come back too? Look, these movies are fucking ridiculous. The people seeing them - myself and all my friends included - just want to see explosions and fast cars and super-jacked dudes and super-hot women. (Which begs the question - where are all the super-hot women?) If I even began to try to analyze the plot or the thematic content of Fast Five, my head would probably explode, so let me just wrap this post up. A sixth movie has been confirmed and a seventh is already heavily rumored. Who would have guessed five years ago, with this franchise dead in the water, that we'd be getting as many as four more movies with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker? I still can't fully fathom the renewed success of this franchise. My guess is that the teens who saw the first movie are now coming back in droves for these sequels for purposes that are at least partially nostalgic and ironic. Whatever - I'm cool with it either way.
I won't post this again even though I watched it with Steve because I try not to obviously duplicate posts, but I feel a comment here is necessary.
ReplyDeleteSteve is completely underrating Fast Five! First off, he barely even talked about Fast Five in his review. I believe he criticized the lack of super-hot women. However, he failed to note how awesome this movie is!
Fast cars? Check
Ridiculously awesome race sequences? Multiple checks. They stole cars from a train and defied physics by dragging a safe around Rio.
Humor? Check! Not sure how planned this was, but many of the lines uttered by Vin Diesel or the Rock or comedy gold.
Just as I thought I was going to fall asleep like I do every time I watch a movie at night, this movie woke me right up with an awesome "That's how we roll! We roll like this!" upbeat song.
And the end. So gratifying. Tyrese (?) and Ludacris get matching 4 of a kind cars. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker race it out after they have escaped from the cops. The Asian guy and hot girl (sorry really don't know these characters names) gallivant around Germany making out on the autobahn.
Seriously Steve. Why don't you stop looking at the series as a whole and appreciate this movie as entertainment gold!
(Disclaimer: I like awful action movies)
I going to side with Marissa on this one. Fast Five is a great action movie. It may also stand as one of my top five movies of 2011. (I'm sure there's a pun you can throw in there. No? Alright I'll move on.)
ReplyDeleteI'll admit that the series as a whole was always kind of an enderring joke. We watch it just to make fun of how ridiculous and over the top it is, but I actually think they accomplished something here. I mean, the story is formulaic and predictable, but Goddamn if it's not fun as Hell. They had giant safe being dragged along by two suped-up cars used as a recking ball destroying the half the streets of Rio de Janeiro. The pulse of the action never let up. On top of all that, it added a little bit of the Ocean's 11 heist story to it as well - always fun - plus a great device to draw back the franchise's biggest characters.
Now we all know that Hollywood is obssesed with its prequels and sequels, revamps and reboots. While this might seem unoriginal and dull, you can't blame them. They are the investments with less risks. Fans will come out in droves for a well known franchise, but with any new story it may take time for it to develope its audience. Not this guy, thought. And I fully encourage the two sequels that are on their way.
PS - When the new movies come out, do your best to go to the ghetto-est theater you can find. I went to see it opening weekend with Kelsi at a theater that boarders Inglewood (a not too reputable neighborhood - it crosses the railroad tracks; that's not a good thing) and the entire parking garage was decked out with rice-rockets and cars on hydrolics. It was hysterically awesome. But, yes, I approve this move as the third best action movie of the year behind MI:4 and Drive (expect a glowing post of this one very soon).
Drive was amazing. We can agree on that much.
Delete