Review: Fast Five

Fast Five is a hard hitting exploration of the corruption in the Brazilian police force and legal system. Okay, of course not – that’s a lie (although it does touch on one of these elements), it’s the fifth addition to the popular Fast and Furious series. This once again follows Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), former cop, Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) and Mia (Jordana Brewster) in the heart of Brazil being hunted down by relentlessly driven (excuse the pun) federal agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and a deadly drug lord (Joaquim de Almeida). Fans of the previous four entries into the series will know what to expect – the usual high speed antics, oiled up cars and bikini babes and tough guy heroes.

The sexual tension on set was unbearable

The film could have easily been the long awaited, The Italian Job sequel – The Brazilian Job, if a few of the actors had been switched over – however Fast Five got there first. The film steps it’s game up from the previous entry Fast and Furious – feeling slightly more exotic (through the Brazilian locations) and higher profile (possibly through the addition of Dwayne Johnson). In a film like this, the acting isn’t the most important thing – this is clearly displayed through numerous members of the cast. Vin Diesel provides the usual tough guy nonsense, while Paul Walker features as the trusty eye candy One scene shows us Diesel and Walker’s characters reminiscing about their deceased fathers, possibly the most emotional moment in the film, however neither two actors can carry this off without seeming extremely insincere. Although they are not auditioning for Remains of the Day, they’re in Fast Five – so more importantly they both handle the action man roles and cheesy dialogue perfectly. An interesting dynamic is added through Dwayne Johnson’s federal agent character and his relationship with Diesel’s character with the competition between the two being one of the more interesting things about the film. There is even a rather amusing fight scene with them that literally appears to be a ‘muscle-off’. The most complex thing about Fast Five is distinguishing between these two musclebound man-babies – fortunately Dwayne Johnson has been given a goatee in order to take this heavy burden from the viewer. He is incredibly entertaining and has his fair share of appalling dialogue such as “I like my desert before I like my dinner!”, but Fast Five embraces this cheesiness to it’s advantage, The film also features local Julio Iglesias lookalike Joaquim de Almeida as a corrupt drug lord, which is an entertaining small role.

There’s an exciting mix of well choreographed stunts and light humour with some cheesy performances added in, these make Fast Five an entertaining action movie that completely delivers all that you are likely to expect from it.