FAST & FURIOUS 5 DVD (2011)

SYNOPSIS: The legendary Dom Toretto partners with outlaw cop Brian O' Conner on the opposite side of the law in exotic Rio de Janeiro Brazil. Hunted by the ruthless Agent Hobbs and an army of corrupt cops working for a deadly drug kingpin, Toretto and O' Conner reunite the gang from previous Fast adventures to pull off one last job - an insane heist worth $100 million!

MOVIE REVIEW:

Even before leading man Vin Diesel joined back the Fast & Furious series after Tokyo Drift, the money-raking franchise has already reached a stagnant point. There is simply a limit to how much stories and street-racing an outlaw and an undercover cop can generate. The popular Universal franchise needs to be steered into another direction and resident writer Chris Morgan and director Justin Lin manages to successful rejuvenate it with a heist theme following “Fast & Furious”. 

“Fast Five” or known as “Fast & Furious 5” locally reunites Diesel (Dom), Paul Walker (Brian), Jordana Brewster (Mia), Tyrese Gibson (Roman), Ludacris (Tej), Sung Kang (Han) from the earlier instalments and together with franchise-crasher, Dwayne Johnson playing a U.S. Diplomatic Security Service agent sees the whole lot of them going against a Rio crime lord, Hernan Reyes. The gang’s motive is to rob Reyes while Johnson’s character is assigned to bring Dom and Brian to justice.

Comparing “Fast Five” to Lin’s earlier helmed instalments and the first two by Rob Cohen and John Singleton, all I can say is Lin did helluva of a job on this one. Without the subpar unnecessary plotting in “Tokyo Drift” and the CG laden “Fast & Furious”, Lin delivers a testosterone-heavy, full-throttle piece that will easily please the summer blockbusters crowd. If the opening heist sequence in “Fast & Furious” is your cup of tea wait till you see this one which features numerous muscle cars, a rolling train and our main leads jumping off a cliff. And we are talking only about the beginning. The marvelous thing is Lin knew how to keep things going and rolling (literally with cars flipping liked Hot Wheels diecast) that this 130 minutes movie though a bit long on paper breezes by even before you knew it.  

Now this is unlike the classy Ocean Eleven series. The guys here don’t discuss their elaborate plans in posh hotels. Most of them aren’t even smooth talkers. Heck, they don’t even have a Chinese acrobat. This is hands-on dirty, gritty crime. All they have is muscle (Vin Diesel and without extra surcharge on the DVD price, another muscle man, Dwayne Johnson slugging it out) and a whole garage of automobiles and their skills in racing. Johnson’s cop character might seem out of place in this already established franchise but yet he brings a whole new level of excitement.

Diesel and Walker are renowned for not being the best actors working in the movie business so are people liked Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris. Fret not, this bunch of people actually are amazing when thrown into a setup liked “Fast Five” especially Diesel and Walker who simply are inseparable and chemistry gelled like industry glue. This two just can’t do without each other in this franchise.  

Embrace this spectacular action fest. Forget about the recent heist titles such as “Armoured” and “Takers”, the last act here which is a prolonged car chase involving a huge vault in tow will go down in history as the mother of all car chase. It’s loud. It’s over-the-top. “Fast Five” marks a true entry in the entire franchise that is worth your time.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

A New Set of Wheels
documents the process of acquiring new cars such as the Porsche, Dodger, Gurkha for the new movie.

There is only two short Deleted Scenes which to me is pointless to take them off the final product.

Watch some crotch-grabbing and Tyrese mouthing some F-words in Gag Reel

Justin Lin supplies a very informative and honest track in Director's Commentary detailing the working process of choreographing the stunts, crediting his crew, working with his cast members and Universal giving him notes not to overrun the budget.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Fast & Furious 5 debuts on DVD with an impressively loud Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack that’s going to shatter your eardrums at every bend. Not forgetting the ending chase sequence which is definitely a home theatre demo piece. Images and details while not necessarily stands out, look clear and natural on the whole owing to the majority of daylight shots.

MOVIE RATING:



DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee



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