Fast five

"This just went from Mission: Impossible to Mission: In-freaking-sanity."

Dominic and his crew find themselves on the wrong side of the law once again as they try to switch lanes between a ruthless drug lord and a relentless federal agent.

size="+2">REVIEW

The fact that the fifth part of a franchise is superior to the four previous movies is something very unusual, even though it might be unfair to compare Fast Five to its predecessors, because this new film changes the formula pretty much, by being a bit away from the car races in order to become into a "heist movie". But there is nothing to worry about; despite change of the focus, the story conserves the automotive fetish and the challenging attitude from the heroes we already know. In my humble opinion, the result was a satisfactory transition which does not stop at anything in order to bring a very entertaining time...even though nobody can consider it intelligent, logical or realistic.

As well as in the previous movies, it is not very convenient to analyze the screenplay from Fast Five very much. In order not to abandon the automotive fetish, every single part from the criminal mission planned by the main characters must be related to fast cars and locations which allow the presence of cute young women moving their rear in front of exotic cars, at the rhythm of Brazilian rap. But anyway, nobody will go to see Fast Five expecting a deep and meaningful story, but "action, action and more action!". And I think that the movie succeeded pretty much in it, because it perfectly alternates exciting sequences of automotive destruction with brief moments of introspection, whose clichés do not avoid their function of bringing some substance to the story and motivation to the characters. In other words, Fast Five knows when to full throttle in order to keep us very entertained, and when to apply the brakes in order not to make us loose the emotional dynamic from the main characters.

However, I think that the absolute star from this movie is director Justin Lin, who in my humble opinion, consecrates himself as an authentic craftsman from the action genre. As an example, I would like to point out one of the few action scenes which do not involve cars; there is a frantic chase through the labyrinths from a favela, and even though it might not be the most spectacular nor elaborated scene from the movie, I was surprised by the way in which Lin (with the help of the brilliant editors Kelly Matsumoto, Fred Rakin and Christian Wagner) could keep the suspense, the emotion and the narrative clarity while he follows a dozen of character from three different factions (cops, criminals and villains) through the complex geography from a favela. I can imagine the confusing mess that would have turned out to be in the hands from directors like Michael Bay or Stephen Sommers. So, in conclusion, Fast Five might not be a great movie, but I think it deserves a recommendation like an exciting and very entertaining film which accepts its dramatic limits, recognizes the value from narrative balance, and takes the maximum advantage from its resources in order to create excellent action sequences which are undoubtedly absurd, but which result curiously appropriate into the universe from this franchise.
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