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Fast Five - I should say that I've only seen the first film in this series (and I've forgotten most of it), so I'm not what you'd call a fan of the franchise. I saw this because I was swayed by critical and personal recommendations. Walking out, I didn't love this film, but I did like it. I also learned two things:
1) Dwayne Johnson needs to get more action vehicles, and it needs to happen yesterday. Between this and Faster, the guy is proving he has the charisma and pure physicality to not be the new Arnold (I would never go that far...ever), but he's damn close to capturing the man's pure screen presence. Doing Disney films is not doing this man's talents justice.
2) Justin Lin can direct the hell out of car scenes and heist scenes. Both of them are over-the-top, but I haven't been this entertained with action racing since Death Proof.
And those two notes alone make this film, at worst, watchable and enjoyable. Especially in a theatre, because this one is loud and in-your-face. However, there are just too many things wrong with this film to really warrant anything better than an above average rating from me. Paul Walker gets a lot of flak, and he is indeed a limited actor, but he isn't given anything to do here. Neither is 98% of the cast, and there sure are a hell of a lot of actors just sort of standing around. Johnson gets the best lines and the best moments here, and it's readily apparent from his very first scene.
Honestly, this could have been better as a film if it wasn't in the Fast series. Make it an independent heist film with a guy on the lam (Diesel would be fine), getting revenge after a screw-job, with Johnson pursuing. Boom, you have a legitimately stronger movie. It's still enjoyable though.
3/5
1) Dwayne Johnson needs to get more action vehicles, and it needs to happen yesterday. Between this and Faster, the guy is proving he has the charisma and pure physicality to not be the new Arnold (I would never go that far...ever), but he's damn close to capturing the man's pure screen presence. Doing Disney films is not doing this man's talents justice.
2) Justin Lin can direct the hell out of car scenes and heist scenes. Both of them are over-the-top, but I haven't been this entertained with action racing since Death Proof.
And those two notes alone make this film, at worst, watchable and enjoyable. Especially in a theatre, because this one is loud and in-your-face. However, there are just too many things wrong with this film to really warrant anything better than an above average rating from me. Paul Walker gets a lot of flak, and he is indeed a limited actor, but he isn't given anything to do here. Neither is 98% of the cast, and there sure are a hell of a lot of actors just sort of standing around. Johnson gets the best lines and the best moments here, and it's readily apparent from his very first scene.
Honestly, this could have been better as a film if it wasn't in the Fast series. Make it an independent heist film with a guy on the lam (Diesel would be fine), getting revenge after a screw-job, with Johnson pursuing. Boom, you have a legitimately stronger movie. It's still enjoyable though.
3/5