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TFG1 Theatrical Adventures – Fast Five Review

Low and behold readers here is the art steve made for me when I wanna review something right after seeing it in theaters.

Ahhhhh yes The Fast and the Furious franchise

I’ve always liked these movies. They do have an over arching story between the first two films, the fourth and fifth films. Tokyo Drift just doesn’t seem to fit in my opinion. Even though the first film centers around the street racing culture the franchise is more then that. Hell ewven in the first film we get the heist angle.

On April 29th 2011 Fast Five was released in theaters. I will admit when I saw the title I kinda scoffed at it. However after getting used to it I think it fits. Whenever we have a year where one of these films comes out for me it kicks off the summer blockbuster season of theatrical releases. I’m in no way saying this is a summer blockbuster I just get excited every time I see a new addition into the franchise. And even though there are plans for more Fast and Furious films I thought that with this one it would be the end all be all and Universal would move away from the franchise. Fast Five reunites every major character from the previous four films. I really enjoyed this. Go Team! lol The inclusion of The Rock was kinda surprising in the fact that I thought we would have seen him in this franchise already. Regardless if anyone thinks that Dwayne Johnson doesn’t fit in this franchise I’d disagree with that. Well at least I think he fits in Fast Five for one reason he’s a good adversary for Vin Diesel’s character Dom.

The effects and action stunts in this I thought were very well executed and looked amazing. Plus the cars are cool as hell too. I thought that for a transition film as they are calling it was very well done. There is a plot it’s not just action, and with most of the old gang back together there is a sense of family. I will say that the crutch of Walkers character is getting old. Either he’s a cop or he’s not damnit make up your minds!!! I liked a lot of the references to the previous films, but you’d have to have seen the other films to catch these.  Now for the addition to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson even though the goatee looks silly I like the character of Hobbs. Lets face it in the previous films Dom really hasn’t had a hard hitting federal agent after him. Diesel and The Rock have great on screen presence when going against one another.

Now the train sequence I thought was very well done and something different for this franchise. Another thing I liked was the fact that they improvised when realizing they can’t pull the big job in regular cars. So what do they do……….they steal cop cars!! One of the main reasons why I like this franchise is that it reminds me of Need For Speed games.

Finally the end scene to close out the film was awesome dragging a safe through the streets wow!!! I liked how they pulled the switch as well. Overall this is a great film in the franchise and something I could watch multiple times. It has great action, romance, adventure, and more. I was however thrown by the “after credits” scene ugh!

Rating: 9/10

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TFG1Mike

TFG1Mike is a geek with many interests. He has been podcasting for over a decade, and sees no stopping point in sight. From Transformers, He-Man, Batman, Comics, movies, video games, cartoons, and so much more, Mike has a zeal for the things he loves, and he will bring the hammer down on the things that he has a disdain for. He's generally a postive person, but negativity can creep in there. Mike is all about the innuendos and innuendon'ts too. You'll hear him on many of The GCRN podcasts!

3 Comments

  1. I went into this movie a raging skeptic. I thought Fast and Furious was a perfect way to just finish the series on a high note. The movie was so brilliant. My only gripe with Fast 4 and I’ll get this out of the way now, is that Letty was murdered to do this. She deserved more than just a bit scene here. They should have brought her back fully for 4 and then sacrificed her in Fast Five. But I digress.

    Now that you could consider Dwayne Johnson as “seasoned” in the action film genre, it is indeed a perfect fit to put him here as Luke Hobbs. A gung ho, balls to the wall, bounty hunter who gets his man but has an extreme sense of honor. This movie shows a beautiful ying yang chemistry with Johnson and Diesel. My only nitpick really is how they were able to bring Han back for this movie. Fast 4 was a flashback scene, so that was legit and okay since we needed to find out how Toretto knew of Han at the end of Tokyo Drift. But we also saw him blown to the depths of hell in Tokyo Drift. Hmmmmmm, could have tried to find a way to explain this away and still keep continuity.

    I refuse to acknowledge Fast 2 as anything in this series. I thought it was a horrific debacle, and was just as bad as James Remar’s destruction of Rayden in MK Annihilation. I would argue Fast Five as equal as Fast 1. Those two movies now stand alone, with Fast 4 as a very close second place.

  2. Ummm…. as far as Letty you did stay for the after credits scene right? NUFF SAID

    I liked Fast 2 it furthered the story we got more about Brian. Fast 3 sucked majorly and is the only one that really adds nothing to the overall story of the franchise. I can see people wanting Fast 4 to be the end and it would have been a hella ending, however right now FF is the only action franchise universal is pushing in film. Fast Five was awesome!

  3. Yes, I did see the credit teaser. And I was psyched for that and frustrated too. It just made Fast Five that much better! It’s weird cause the only thing bout 3 I liked was that end scene that hinted at a possible Diesel return to the Fast series. Scuse me, and Han. I did like him as a character and he was a sweet add to the team for FF. I kind of thought of 2 Fast as a stand still for the O Conner character. He really built up in Fast 4 and even more so in FF.

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