Film Review: FAST FIVE (2011)

[A.K.A. FAST & FURIOUS 5]

Director: Justin Lin
Writers: Chris Morgan, Gary Scott Thompson (characters)
Running Time: 124 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12

Genre: Action/Crime/Thriller
UK Release Date: 21^st April 2011

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 17^th March 2012.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I think I’ve probably seen the previous four ‘Fast & Furious’ films and so I thought it would be a shame to miss out on the latest instalment. I broke with tradition and checked a couple of sites before I decided to give it a look (didn’t want to waste my time on another turkey!). I was pleasantly surprised to see it scored quite well and so I thought I’d give it a shot. I must say it did exactly what it said on the tin and I can honestly say it’s a welcome return to form for the F&F franchise. I will tell you more after this very brief summary.

Having sprung Mia’s brother and Brian O’Conner’s best friend, Dominic Toretto, from prison, the trio head for Brazil to lay low. Mia and Brian meet up with an old friend, Vince, who steers them in the direction of a job; a car heist. The job doesn’t quite go according to plan but they end up in possession of some very useful information about the operations of a drug cartel headed by one Hernan Reyes. Some American D.E.A. agents were killed during the heist and so tough lawman, Luke Hobbs, and his team are sent to Brazil to capture Toretto and his associates. Meanwhile, Toretto decides to use the information they have on Reyes to take all his money and retire. To do this they will have to assemble a team and one final, spectacular, heist is planned. I will not say any more or the Spoiler Police (Care Chases Division) will be suspending my license (again).

Very well shot with some truly spectacular driving stunts and special effects; the driving in this film is really excellent; hats off to all those involved in the stunt work! As for performances, well everybody did a decent job; Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto and Paul Walker as Brian O’Conner, reprising roles from previous instalments were just as good as they were in the first film. Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto did a decent job, as did Dwayne Johnson as the no-nonsense cop, Luke Hobbs. Also worthy of note were; Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce, Ludacris as Tej Parker, Matt Schulze as Vince and Joaquim de Almeida as Hernen Reyes.

You’d have thought a film about big men driving fast cars wouldn’t be all that appealing, but this one does have a bit of something about it. No, it’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it is entertaining in its own way and I can’t knock it for that. The stunt work is excellent and the plot isn’t all that bad as either. It does, however, require some knowledge of at least some of the previous films involving the main characters though. It works quite well as a caper/heist movie with a bit of an edge to it, although I did find a little too much time was spent with the ‘good guys’. The city of Rio features very prominently and, for me, was also a bit of a star of the show. Over all, although it’s not a great film, it’s an entertaining film and one I have no problem in deeming… Recommended.

My Score: 7.2/10

IMDb Score: 7.3/10 (based on 105,098 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1596343/

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 78/100 (based on 180 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 83/100 (based on 104,318 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fast_five/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
Hobbs: Hey Toretto, you're under arrest.
Dominic Toretto: I don't feel like I'm under arrest.
Dominic Toretto: [to Brian] How about you Brian?
Brian O'Conner: No, not a bit. Not even a little bit.
Hobbs: Oh just give it a minute, it will sink in.
Brian O'Conner: We didn't kill those feds. That was Reyes.
Hobbs: I don't give a shit. I'm just here to bring two assholes whose names hit my desk.
Brian O'Conner: Yeah, that sounds like a real hero.
Hobbs: That's funny. From a guy who took the oath of a cop, then went against everything it stood for, for some wannabe tough guy prick who beat a man half to death with a socket wrench. Yeah, real tough. You turn around and put your hands behind your back.
Dominic Toretto: I don't think so.
Hobbs: Your mistake is thinking you have a goddamn choice, boy!
Dominic Toretto: And your mistake? Thinking you're in America. You're a long way from home. This is Brazil!

Brian O'Conner: You realize we're talking about going up against the most powerful guy in all of Rio?
Dominic Toretto: Yes, we are.
Brian O'Conner: Then we're gonna need a team.

Roman Pearce: [regarding going into a police station] Who's supposed to do all that?
[Everyone looks at Roman]
Roman Pearce: What do you mean? Why me?
Brian O'Conner: Cause you got the biggest mouth.
Tej: That is for damn sure.

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Official Site: http://www.fastfivemovie.com/
Trailer:

Film Review: A MAN APART (2003)

Director: F. Gary Gray
Writers: Christian Gudegast & Paul Scheuring
Running time: 109 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 18

Genre: Action/Adventure/Drama
UK Release date: 4^th April 2003

Watched on Sky+ Wednesday 11^th January 2012.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This is maybe not one of the films I would have chosen; however, on recommendation (you know who you are) I decided to give it a chance. There’s nothing earth shattering about it I’m afraid, just another run of the mill Action/Adventure with plenty of plot twists and an enormous body count. The Mexican drug cartels are the bad guys this time and a rough-tough DEA agent and his partner are the good guys. I’ll tell you what I thought after this brief summary.

A group of DEA agents have been allowed into Mexico to participate in the arrest of one of the drug cartel’s top men, Memo Lucero. Amongst the agents are Sean Vetter and his partner, Demetrius Hicks. The take down goes well and Lucero ends up in a US jail. At this point a character named ‘Diablo’ makes himself known; taking over parts of Lucero’s operation and killing his people. Eventually the ‘Diablo’ cartel turns their attention to Sean; attacks his house and kills his wife. Seeking revenge, Sean visits Lucero in jail; he cannot initially help him, but when his own wife is killed, things change. Can Sean and Demetrius track down who is behind ‘Diablo’? To do so they will have to sometimes stray outside the law! I won’t say any more or the Spoiler Police (DEA division) will have my badge (again).

Quite well made though I did find the action scenes a little confusing at times. Decent performances all round, although I felt nobody was really stretched; and so honourable mentions go to; Vin Diesel as Sean Vetter, Larenz Tate as Demetrius Hicks, Timothy Olyphant, woefully underused, as Hollywood Jack and Geno Silva as Memo Lucero.

Many films have been made on this subject before and there have been many films of this genre. The hard thing to do is to make a film of this type that doesn’t fall into cliché. Unfortunately this one does, and it suffers for it. A much better film of this type (IMO) would be Tony Scott’s ‘Man on Fire’ (2004). I guess I can sum it up by saying ‘it does what it says on the tin’, this film is what it is and, although a little too cliché for my liking, is still worth a look if this is your kind of thing.

My score: 5.9/10.

IMDb Score: 5.8/10 (based on 19,342 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0266465/

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 11/100 (based on 130 reviews counted at the time of going to press).
Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 40/100 (based on 82,184 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/man_apart/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
Sean: They call us down here. They take away our weapons? They expect us to go into a building full of drunken cartel gunmen unarmed? I mean, that isn't fun.
Ty Frost: You're not gettin' paid to have fun. Good luck, gentlemen.

Sean: I like this car.
Hollywood Jack: Hey, nice truck.
Sean: Thanks.
Hollywood Jack: In fact, I was thinking about trading this one in for, like, seven of those.

Sean: Ah... Let me get your license and registration, please.
Hollywood Jack: May I um... ask what I did?
Sean: Yeah, your mud flaps. You got no mud flaps on this.
Hollywood Jack: It's a fuckin' Porsche.
Sean: Well you won't have to worry about it when you trade it in for the truck.

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Official Site: http://www.newline.com/properties/manaparta.html
Trailer:

Film Review: FAST & FURIOUS (2009)

Director: Justin Lin
Running time: 107 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 12

UK Release Date: 10th April 2009

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 4th April 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I have seen all of the previous films in this series on TV, I’m not a huge fan and so I won’t go out of my way to watch them. I am, however, a bit of a fan of Vin Diesel, he seems to ooze that certain charisma a film star should have. He appeared in the first of these films, took a bit of a sabbatical for the second and came back for a brief cameo in the third. So it was with some anticipation that I watched the return of his character, Dominic Toretto in this, the fourth instalment.

Dom and his gang are in the Dominican Republic and up to no good; they are hijacking fuel trucks to sell the fuel for a profit. Included in the gang is Dom’s long time girlfriend Letty. Having just pulled a job they get word that the police are onto them and Dom decides it’s best for them to all go their separate ways for a while. They do this until the day Dom gets a call from his sister, Mia, telling him that Letty has been killed. Meanwhile, FBI agent Brian O’Conner, who was featured in the fist two of these films, is investigating notorious drugs dealer named Braga. It seems Braga is using drivers to smuggle drugs across the Mexican border and it was while working for him that Letty was killed. So both Dom and Brian have reason to get in with Braga, Dom, for revenge and Brian, for justice. They both try out as drivers and succeed by one means or another. It’s now a case of how do they get to the illusive Braga. I’ll leave my little summary there or I’ll give the whole plot away!

This is a pretty well made film with lots of car stunts and quite a lot of CGI work that is pretty well done, but does, at times, look a bit like a video game. You’ll know what I mean when you see the tunnel chase near the end of the film. As ever Vin Diesel was very good as Dominic Toretto, as was Paul Walker as Brian O’Conner. Honourable mentions go to Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto, Michelle Rodriguez as Letty and John Ortiz as Campos.

I’ll admit it’s not the best film I’ve ever seen and so it won’t be making any of my top tens at the end of the year. But it does what it says on the tin, it’s got lots of car chases and there’s plenty of testosterone flying about. The chases were exciting and well executed, when they didn’t use too much CGI. I can’t recommend it very highly, but it is entertaining and it won’t tax the grey cells too much.

My score: 5.4/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1013752/
Official Site: http://www.fastandfuriousmovie.net/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi2299986713/

Film Review: BABYLON A.D. (2008)

Director: Mathieu Kassovitz
Running time: 89 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 12

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 26th September 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This film is set in the future, the not too distant future if I’m not mistaken. The world looks overcrowded and very violent. Only time will tell if this depiction is accurate, I have a nasty feeling it will be, but that’s only my opinion. Anyhow we’re here to talk about the film. A futuristic action thriller with Vin Diesel can’t be all bad, can it? From some of the reviews I’ve been reading out there in internetland, it can be very bad indeed. Well, I’m here to tell you that in my opinion, it’s not all that bad. Yes, it’s got faults, there are no faultless films, but it is certainly better than some out there would have you believe. Let me tell you a bit about the plot then I’ll continue.

Toorop is a mercenary hired by Gorsky, whose position is not made clear, but he’s certainly influential. Toorop’s mission is to get a girl, Aurora, and her companion, Sister Rebeka, from Russia to New York. Unbeknownst to Toorop, the High Priestess of the Noelite religion is behind the contract and other forces are trying to stop Aurora from reaching her destination. This makes for an exciting journey, especially when we discover that Aurora is very special. I won’t say too much more because I don’t want to give away too many spoilers.

As I said before, this film has its faults, the story can be quite hard to follow, but it’s all there if you look for it. It was technically competent with some nice explosions and even some pretty cool CGI. The cast were all pretty good, I couldn’t fault any of the performances, Vin Diesel was good as Toorop, Michelle Yeoh was great as Sister Rebeka and a fine performance from Mélanie Thierry as Aurora. Good supporting parts from Gérard Depardieu, who I’ll admit I didn’t recognise, as Gorsky and Charlotte Rampling as the High Priestess. At the end of the film I actually cared about the main characters and what happened to them, which tells me the film wasn’t all that bad. I think maybe it suffered a bit from being given a 12A Certificate in the UK (PG-13 in the US); this severely limited the way the story could be told. I would love to see a ‘director’s cut’ to see how it should have been made. Over all, an exciting futuristic action adventure that could have been better, but not as bad as some might have you believe.

My score: 6/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0814022/
Official Site: http://www.babylonadmovie.com/