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Vol. LXV, No. 18
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Wednesday, May 4, 2011
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Vol. LXV, No. 18
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Wednesday, May 4, 2011
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For more movie summaries, see Kam’s Kapsules.
(Photo by Quantrell Colbert)
QUICK, GET IN THE CAR BEFORE THEY GET AWAY: The rogue cop Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker, left) and his ex-convict partner Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), don’t bother with the car’s doors in order to save time in their chase after one of their enemies. To find out how things turn out, see the movie.
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We first met Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) a decade ago in The Fast and the Furious, when the decorated police detective went rogue to help career criminal Dominic “Dom” Toretto (Vin Diesel) evade justice for masterminding a string of multimillion-dollar truck hijackings. Four sequels later, we find the pair up to their old tricks, although the ex-cop is now with the FBI while the ex-con has just been sentenced to life without parole for murdering a mobster during a heroin sting that went bad.
After the opening credits, Brian uses his car to free Dom by ramming the Los Angeles County Sheriff Office’s bus that is taking him to the penitentiary. Following the daring escape the buddies go their separate ways after agreeing to rendezvous in Rio de Janeiro.
When they meet again down in Brazil, Dominic learns that he’s about to become an uncle because his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), who is Brian’s girlfriend, is pregnant. The three of them decide to pull off the proverbial “one last heist” that will set them up for the rest of their lives.
They plan to rob the local drug kingpin, Herman Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), who has amassed a cool $100 million in cash. However, our heroes realize that they need to assemble a team of experts in order to steal the cash from the mobster.
So, they enlist six confederates to help them by promising each one a big payday. The gang is comprised of technical expert Tej Parker (Ludacris), smooth talking con artist Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson), weapons expert Gisele (Gal Gadot), and getaway drivers Tego Leo (Tego Calderon), Han Lue (Sung Kang), and Ric Santos (Don Omar).
They plan to con Reyes into hiding all of his money in one place, so that they’ll only have a single safe to crack. However, this proves more of a challenge than they anticipated when the corrupt Rio cops and a detail of Federal Agents led by Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) arrive and interfere with their plans.
True to the Fast and Furious series, the film continues with a dazzling display of stunt driving and death defying car chases that use stolen souped-up automobiles. To its credit, Fast Five delivers harmless high-octane mayhem, non-stop action, and lots of special effects.
Excellent (4 stars). Rated PG-13 for profanity, sexuality, and intense violence. Running time: 130 minutes. Distributor: Universal Pictures.
For more movie summaries, see Kam’s Kapsules.