Fast Five: A satisfying sequel!

After Brian and Mia break Dom out of prison they try to stay one step ahead of the law. This eventually leads them to Rio de Janeiro where they run afoul of a powerful local drug lord named Reyes. In order to gain their freedom and stop Reyes from hunting them, they need to pull one last job. Little do they know that even as they assemble their team a hard nosed federal agent named Luke Hobbs is on their tail, looking to capture them.

When a film series hits its fifth installment, chances are it is so much like the previous films, in characters, story and actions, that it boarders on ridiculousness and cliche (see the Friday the 13th, Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street series for examples of this). In light of this, it is shocking that The Fast and Furious franchise has reached a fifth film, given the fact that all of the subsequent sequels to the 2001 original have been lacking in originality and entertainment.

So why should you check out Fast Five? For starters, the action was intense and constant. Not only were there the expected car chases/stunt sequences (the most insane of which involved Dom and Brian tearing up the streets of Rio with the bad guy's safe in the finale) but a number of fight sequences that were unusually effective. Beyond the sequences that most action fans were hoping to see in the film what helped to set this sequel apart from its predecessors was the story and characters. Director Justin Lin did well to make sure they satisfied the conventions that fans of the series were expecting while, at the same time, expanding upon those conventions and characters so that Fast Five was not just another brainless retread. Framing the story around the caper that Dom, Brian and the rest of team were trying to pull not only allowed for some Ocean's Eleven type caper action, but also for the cast (including a number of familiar faces from the previous films) to provide some memorable performances that made their characters easy for the audience to connect with. Add to that an absolutely show-stopping performance by Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs (the parts where he and Diesel squared off were epic) and you can start to see why this sequel merits at least one viewing.

Taken for the good old fashioned popcorn action flick it is meant to be, Fast Five was a satisfying sequel with plenty of action but also surprising depth of character and story.

Grade: B

The Other Guys: Another bland comedy

Desk jockey cops Allen Gamble and Terry Hoitz are tired of their fellow officers gaining all of the glory. But when they get their big break to finally start doing some real police work, will they be able to crack the case?

There comes a point during The Other Guys where it’s conceivable that the audience started to cringe every time Will Ferrell, as Detective Allen Gamble, tried to make another joke that fell flat on its face. They cringed because they remembered all of the other memorable screen characters Ferrell is responsible for (Ricky Bobby and Ron Burgundy for instance) and wondered if he has somehow lost his touch because Gamble, and the entire film for that matter, was not fun to watch. It’s not as though there were not funny moments in the film, but they were almost singularly provided by other cast members such as Michael Keaton (as the TLC referencing Captain) and Mark Wahlberg as Gamble’s partner Terry Hoitz (who should have been given more of a chance to “fly like a peacock”). It’s not even much of a stretch to say the film would have better if Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson (a.k.a. The Rock) had played the roles of Gamble and Hoitz. To cast those two as the bumbling “other guy” cops would have given the film the satirical bite that director Adam McKay was looking for.

Instead, the audience was given two hours of Ferrell trying too hard, and never really succeeding.

Grade: C-