Fast Five: Great Movie or Greatest Movie?

FAST FIVE

Thank you, "Anonymous," for the post title suggestion in your comment to my last post. I guess all those residuals you get from Primary Colors give you enough free time to browse and comment on obscure movie blogs. Well, it's appreciated.

So, in an O&MTM first, I'm going to step aside and give the stage to a guest-poster, "M," who recently made some interesting points in a spirited e-mail exchange with a friend of ours, "C," and myself. The topic was the latest installment in the Fast and the Furious saga, Fast Five.

* * * SPOILERS FOR THE F&F FRANCHISE IN GENERAL AND FAST FIVE IN PARTICULAR—SO BUCKLE UP! (so bad, I know) * * *

It started when "C" posed the following question:

"So.... Does Fast Five take place after 4 (Fast and Furious), but before 3 (Tokyo Drift)?

"4 was a prequel to 3 (right?) - and 5 comes right on the heels of 4 (breaking Dom out of prison). Then, at the end of 5, Han is taking the scenic route (through Europe) to Tokyo... where he eventually dies in a car explosion in 3.

"I guess it could also explain why Brian isn't in Tokyo.... because he's off somewhere raising little beach baby O'Connor.

"Then, Six (with Letty in Berlin) would probably also be pre-Tokyo.

"Does that make sense?"

To which I responded:

"I think you're giving it about an order of magnitude more thought than the filmmakers did."

To which "M" countered:

"Owen, I am going to have to disagree. I think what sets this movie apart is the level of thought that went into it. And Justin Lin, who cut his teeth on F&F:TD (and perfected his craft on my favorite Community episode) was just the man for the job. Drift was precisely the kind of movie you describe in your response - a franchise film that tries to get by on name alone while forsaking the universe it purports to be a part of and giving no thought to making a 'good' film. Lin was a hired gun on Drift - just as much a throw away as the movie itself. However, although the film was a failed money grab, Lin was able to showcase his technical prowess by bring a realistic depiction of extreme drifting to an international audience. Although the plot fell flat, people were awed by the money shots.

"Lin's flair allowed him to get a shot at making a true F&F movie in Fast and Furious. The principals were back and the movie was a success because he had more creative control and was able to consider what fans really wanted from the reunion of the perpetual buster, Paul Walker, and il padre di famiglia, Vinny D. Lin's enthusiasm (and the unabashed childlike wonder of Paul Walker) bled off the screen and was so infectious that it revitalized a franchise that nobody else even knew they wanted or cared about. Drift and FandF were strikingly different in that one existed squarely within the F&F universe and in the other, the producers were content to live on the periphery. Lin made people believe that this was a movie that they had been clamoring for even though, prior to seeing it, most of us were content to let F&F die.

"With Fast Five, Lin was able to immerse himself even further in the F&F universe. He was so deep that he took for granted the familiarity of the audience with his labor of love. If anything, too much thought was put into this movie, to the point that some of the basic premise was presented without much explanation. Lin's love of the characters, the subject matter, and even the audience is apparent throughout the movie. The cohension that this film has with the 4 other films is what made us love it so very much. And to keep that type of cohension across 5 films of various levels of quality and audience acceptance is something that, I would think, takes a great deal of thought.

"['C'] is right - In the end of Fast Five, Han was making his way to Tokyo, a trip that would end in his demise. Chronologically, Drift is the last film."

Man, have I been put in my place. Touché, good sir. Of course, my estimation of how much thought went into the franchise's continuity had no bearing on my enjoyment of Fast Five, which I expect was apparent after we all saw it a couple nights ago. It probably has more to do with the fact that I haven't caught any of the installments between the original and the latest, a knowledge gap of ten years and three films; I just had no appreciation of the intricate universe that had been constructed over the course of the franchise.

As for my own thoughts, it was a mindless summer action flick of the highest caliber. They finally found a worthy adversary for Vin Diesel in the Rock—worthy in the sense of visually seeming like a peer, someone who could go toe to toe with that trunk-necked behemoth, a true yin to his yang, much more so than the relatively puny Walker. (I certainly didn't mean "worthy" in terms of charisma—the true measure of an actor's performance in a film like this, rather than actual acting ability—in which respect the Rock easily runs circles around Diesel. Of course, even Diesel is a veritable Will Smith compared to Walker, who has all the screen presence of a cardboard box that was left out in the rain. Seriously, he, Josh Hartnett, and Channing Tatum need to team up and form some League of Bland Actors; by their powers combined, they might be as entertaining as watching grass grow.) In terms of what I hoped for from a film like this, Fast Five delivered: terrific action, well shot and with great, reverberating sound; a fast-paced storyline with an appropriate tempo between high-energy and lower-energy sequences; and fun, memorable characters who play off one another well. Fast Five is the kind of guns-and-'splosions action movie we can only hope they'd all be like.

In closing, I would like to leave you with a few words that I have no doubt shall echo down through the æons to come whenever man's thoughts turn to the art and craft of the moving picture:

"Did he slap that ass, or did he grab it and hold onto it?"