Fast Five

I wasn’t planning to see this film at all. It’s not that I have anything against the The Fast and the Furious series as such. I liked the first film. I like Paul Walker. I think he has a great face and great body to be a romantic lead. But he seems to have struck in the action-heist genre (Into the Blue). I have nothing else against Vin Diesel. However, I’m not particularly kicked about people doing stunts in their expensive cars. I mean, I am not an adolescent anymore. I liked the first film. I saw some potions of the second, and parts of Tokyo Drift. I did not really care about the characters.

Despite these, Fast Five, the fifth film in the series, was a treat. There is nothing new here, but the energy and bonhomie among the actors dazzle the screen, add to that the favelas of Rio in Brazil, and oh, those cars, and you’ll spend a zooming two hours. It reminds of the Ocean’s 11, 12 and 13, very thin heist films, but full of life, chiefly due to how the actors interact among themselves. Here too, there are lots of hugging and touching, small gestures of concern and private jokes, all of which make the characters believable within the context of a plot which serves as an excuse for action and car races.

Don’t worry about the story though: It’s a preposterous heist plot, where Dom’s 9 comes to Rio, where Dom is hiding after he was helped escape on his way to prison by his sister, Mia, and friend Brian, and decides to rob the richest man in the whole of Rio, a mob boss, who keeps his money in a police station. All this while an American super-agent “The Rock”, remember him?, is in hot pursuit.

Don’t ask me who Dominic is, and who is Brian... that’s the territory of the geeks.

But, as I said, it’s pure Adrenaline rush as long as it lasts. And when the show ends, you know Fast Six is on its way.