Movie: Fast Five
Watching the trailer for the fifth movie in the fast and the furious franchise sets the scene well. This isn’t going to be a nuanced, character driven drama, but an action movie with one-liners, fast cars, and people hitting and shooting at each other.
In the earliest scene of prolonged dialogue in the film, the characters keep shouting at each other. This seems to be the main “furious” part, as from there, it’s more violence than fury between the anti-hero crew, the evil drug lords, and the American who is trying to bring them back to the US to face justice.
One of the anti-heroes – played by Vin Diesel – first appears in the film off-screen, with just the sound of the throttle of a V8 engine. It’s not until a later scene (at a suitably dramatic moment) that he’s even on camera.
Another main character – played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson – is a classic movie hero of the Schwarzenegger school. He has the best one-liners, and is the biggest caricature out of the group.
Is it worth mentioning the roles of women in the film? There’s a mother, a pregnant lady, an attractive woman with a military past, and a number of girls who wear the kind of revealing outfits that you wouldn’t expect them to wear to an afternoon tea with their grandparents.
Out of the five films, I’ve now seen the first and the last, so I missed some of the character references that was made in the dialogue, but for the most part, you can turn up to this movie cold and make sense of it.
You’ll need to suspend your belief in the laws of physics. You’ll need to put up with a couple of sub-plots that make no sense, don’t advance the plot at all, and are just an excuse to drive fast cars.
But, if you’re after a popcorn movie with some explosions, an almost completely objectified view of women, and a lot of fast cars, then it certainly delivers.