Fast & Furious 5

Marvelous acting from an all star crew and what can anyone say but it's spot on with everything up and down, slightly over done, but who cares when hell rides on wheels as meant to be in the story line. Vin Diesel at his best what else can you expect action going left and right even a few beautiful girls thrown in as well, plus a few other things like a bank job so that they can retire and stunts galore. So get into top gear with your feet firmly on the floor and the remote in your hands for a fabulous night of entertainment so fast you might need your seatbelt done up, there is no slowing down so grab a bite and try to relax while watching this fantastic movie. I rated this A grade plus for thrills and spills that didn't stop for a minute, come along for the ride and join me, and you be the judge, you wont have time to be disappointed that's for sure. Enjoy.

You either love these movies or you hate them. All I know, this is the best of the bunch (Tokyo Drift doesn't count, that movie sucks!). This region free blu ray really makes this movie shine!! The 1080p video is outstanding (typical of Universal blu rays) and the 5.1 DTS sound is abundant in surround and bass activity. Too bad its not 6.1 or 7.1, the extra channels would really add to the excitement! (it decodes 6.1 ES matrix on my Denon receiver, but the added channel would be nice). There are two versions of the film on the blu ray, theatrical and extended versions. It has abundant special features like the U-control I have grown to love on the Universal blu rays (U-control is PIP with special features while watching the movie). Cannot tell you what is on the DVD, because with blu ray why even watch the lower resolution DVD? This is one of the better reference quality blu rays that will show your friends why blu rays and digital surround sound rule the home theater experience! Get the steel cover version while you can before they become extinct, because they are limited. Get ready to make your neighbours mad with this rockin blu ray!! Enjoy the ride!

Great product!

This is the first film in the franchise to bring all the main players together from all the various films, and to me it's the best of the series so far. It would help if you have seen the previous films but it's not essential, this is classic Fast and Furious, amazing cars and car chases, brilliant banter between the characters, a great popcorn film. If you have watched the previous films, don't forget to watch the end credit scene, it sets up for Fast and Furious 6 with a shock twist if you haven't seen it, I won't spoil it, but you SHOULD wait to see it. Definitely the best so far of the series, bring on number 6.

I loved this film! I've already seen it twice in the cinema and intend to go again. Like a lot of people who have been following this franchise since the begining, I was worried that a 5th film was taking the series too far but it was really enjoyable :) I would have liked a bit more focus on the cars as, other than Dom's charger, there weren't many impressive cars. However I loved the story line and action scenes... I'm now in agony waiting for the next film, I can't wait to see how the team (especially Dom) reacts when they find out Letty is still alive! (FILM SPOLIER - do you think Mia and Brian will have a boy or girl? Just curious on other people's opinions) Can't wait until this is released on DVD (I will be pre-ordering it for sure) and bring on Fast & Furious 6!!!!

Better than Tokyo Drift, back on track with this one

F&F5 is where I came into this franchise entirely unintentionally before working my way back (literally, through 4, 3, 2 and 1) and then forwards to 6. When moving pictures were first invented at the turn of the 20th century, people rightly understood real learning took time, work and study and properly viewed movies as light, fun, recreation. Then the art-house and "message" movies drove audiences away in droves; as my friend who bought me F&F5 and who has more degrees than a compass pointed out, "if I want preaching I'll go to church, if I want lectures I'll go to college". Unfortunately the understandable backlash against this pretentious nonsense allowed movie-makers to go way too far in the other extreme, producing mindless trash for maximum profit that is 90 minutes of your life you'll never get back. I like movies for entertainment - a couple of hours out of a stressful life where I can relax and not have to think too deeply - but bitter experience has taught me that all too often this genre is often the worst for wasting your money and time. Anything "high octane" is usually just a 90 minute advert for Advil or Tylenol - you should be paid to watch such pap rather than the other way, or else it's an action movie that tries too hard to be "deep" and look at "bigger issues" as Point Break tried and failed despite Patrick Swayze managing to keep a straight face whilst spouting pseudo-psychobabble. When I was given F&F5 I was polite but not enthused. However, my friend insisted it would be perfect - my work is mentally intense but I also have a muscle disease which means I spend my life in considerable pain - a couple of hours of escapism works a treat, but in recent years it has been endlessly disappointing: screeching, swearing, a cacophony of mindless, misogynistic din, total absence of plot, characters, etc. But it was a gift, and I do not lie so my choices were limited - not to watch it would be implying my friend's judgement of my personality and what I would like is poor (it's not) and so I felt obliged to give it a go...and what a pleasant surprise! It is a nice action movie - and I use "nice" as a compliment of the highest order. Yes, some of the stunts/chases "toy idly with the laws of physics" (what doesn't these CGI days?) but that is the whole point of action-adventure-escapism (the clue's in the name) which is why I like reading the likes of J.T. Edson's "Bunduki" series and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Professor Challenger" series. Indeed, one big plus of the whole F&F franchise for me is that rather than lazily relying on "fix it in post/the dub" Justin Lin, Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, etc., do a lot of stunts and "practical" shots rather than relying on CGI. It adds depth and tone. With F&F5 you are not "battered" by relentless din; you get some deft emotional touches, good characterization, a well-paced, well-written heist story (how are they going to get past the seemingly unsolvable problem?) and best of all nobody has a mouth like an open sewer (see F&F4 review) and whilst there is lots of nice "human" scenery, the "sex" elements are never gratuitous or pointlessly included for titillation - I get the sense that Vin Diesel was asking himself, "if the kids want to see daddy's movie can I show them this?" The answer is "Yes" - it's not age appropriate for very young children, and older kids need some stern discipline to not try and copy stuff, but it is a film I'd happily take older kids to and not worry about them being traumatized, in comparison to some of the supposedly "family friendly" stuff out there (e.g., Hunger Games) that should be kept as far away from kids as possible. Having a plethora of godchildren who seem to think I know stuff about stuff this is a responsibility I take seriously. If someone gave you a pint of lemonade with one drop of arsenic in it, would you drink it, even though it was mostly lemonade? Today even those helicopter parents who stunt their kids by micromanaging them freak about all the wrong stuff and remain oblivious that their mini-me is being deluged with mostly arsenic, just enough sugar-flavoured with lemonade to disguise the taste of the poison. F&F5 is supposedly a macho crash-bang-wallop heist movie but I wouldn't hesitate to leave age-appropriate children to watch it unsupervised (though a stern talking to and pausing the warning about not copying the stunts would be in order). Chris Morgan, the writer who did F&F5 (as well 4 and 6) has done a great job of keeping the flow and the plausibility here too after he dovetailed F&F1, 2 and 4 into a coherent narrative - we care about the characters and are not just in it for the chase/crash/boom sequences, which is the hallmark of good writing and which is why this franchise is still going strong when others have fallen by the wayside. Astutely keeping an eye on the franchise future and since Brian O'Connor has now gone native, Vin Diesel et al intended F&F5 to be a transition movie and this works very well. The Brian/Dom/Mia story was envisaged as a 3-chapter visual novel/trilogy that was played out over F&F 1,2 & 4 but if you've seen one street race movie you've seen them all, whereas with heist movies you have scope for adding plot twists and so on - The Italian Job [DVD] [1969 ] arguably one of the best films Michael Caine ever made, is the Gold Standard. F&F5 good-naturedly pays homage, but doesn't make the mistake of seriously considering itself a contender at the same level. If you consider F&F1,2 & 4 the main novel, F&F5 is the epilogue to that story-arc and the co-prologue (with F&F3) to the next story-arc of F&F6, F&F7 (release due in 2014) and presumably F&F8. F&F5 takes the story forward in a plausible, well-structured way, yet also wraps up the original trilogy as we have "the gang's all here" - Dom's crew/friends from F&F1, Brian's friends/allies from F&F2, Mia, etc., the core group from F&F4, all come together to help out - the F&F franchise theme has always been about family - in a world blighted by increasing family breakdown and individual selfishness rather than selflessness many people have to forge their own "non traditional" family unit with others who are family of the heart and soul, rather than blood and bone. F&F5 of course introduced Dwayne Johnson as the gang's new Nemesis, Luke Hobbs, who is Judge Dredd on steroids but initially with none of the "charm". Having seen Dwayne Johnson right back from his early WWE days as "The Rock", I was very impressed with the way his introduction and presence in the story was handled. All too often a "big name" bolt-on to an established "universe" demands on-screen every 30 seconds and wants all the best humour/exposition/emotional angst lines. Johnson here takes his place within an ensemble cast and refreshes them; he doesn't push them aside and detract at their expense. There is also some very nice mirroring/nods to the whole storyline, even though F&F5 is an epilogue/prologue and (like F&F4) can be watched as a standalone movie if you want to. Hobbs is a hollow man - callous, indifferent, empty of joy and purpose, with no life outside his career, he doesn't recognise how meaningless his life is (which is just the direction Brian was heading in the FBI in F&F4) and because of this his part is played just right - there is no grudging respect for Dom or his crew or even slight acknowledgement of their perspective or acceptance of Dom's (albeit slight) moral high ground in that the FBI reneged and betrayed him (F&F4); Hobbs just does not care. What he does care about - and this is nicely played in the street race scene where Hobbs' crew and Dom's crew meet face to face for the first time - is O'Connor. To Hobbs, Dom is nothing more than a number on a sheet, a tick box to be done and forgotten. But Brian O'Connor is a red rag to the (Brahma) bull; he is sticking a vial of smelling salts under the nose of a fully-conscious and already very angry man. Brian O'Connor's decision to pick Dom/Mia over his FBI career enrages a man like Hobbs. Although the fan/critical focus was on the pissing-contest fight scene between Dom and Hobbs that came later (superbly staged as well), the "first contact" street race scene is written spot-on (well done Chris Morgan) and directed/shot just as well (well done Justin Lin). Hobbs' hate and aggression practically leaps out towards O'Connor, which is exactly as it would be in "real life." It's a deft writing touch reminding us all that of all the characters, Brian O'Connor is the one who always had the most to lose and lost it, the one who sacrificed the most, and suffered the most because of it - O'Connor's wry, but resigned reaction to Hobbs' bristling attack dog subtly reminds Dom and the others and the audience too, just what has been given up for the their sake - and of course it is well-crafted understated "realism" - in real-life, O'Connor would be the one most hated, persecuted and at risk from law enforcement officers, officials and agencies for "treachery", "going rogue" "gamekeeper-turned-poacher", etc. In terms of "social psychology" it's also a nice turn by Paul Walker as the only one not swaggering and smirking because he doesn't need to - he is secure in his masculinity, at peace with his chosen identity and therefore watches Dom/Hobbs posturing and snarling at each other with amusement. The casting of Walker has been critical to the franchise's success in many ways - he grounds each movie, is a perfect foil/sidekick for Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto intensity and is never precious. What's also good is that Hobbs doesn't suddenly undergo some unbelievable 180 degree character-ectomy in the closing five minutes of the movie to girlie buddy-buddy; he is still after Dom, Brian etc., but unbends (slightly) enough to give them a 24-hour start (a nice in-universe reference/nod back to F&F1, where Brian did the same for Dom in LA). The only real "issue" with Johnson is that ghastly dead rat stuck to his chin. Why oh why anyone thought that was a good idea is beyond me. The only slightly excusable moment to have it is when Hobbs is trying to laser beam incinerate Brian with his eyeballs in the street scene and it's stuck out all bristling. Maybe its because Johnson, Diesel and Tyrese Gibson (Roman Pearce) were all bald-shaven for the movie and they thought we couldn't tell apart!? Hello, Polynesian, Caucasian and African, I think we can get that. Unfortunately the diabolical chin-rat thing clings on in F&F6 (when "toying idly with the laws of physics" couldn't he have an improbable shaving accident with a straight razor?). As far as I am aware, Johnson has a reputation for being an intelligent, witty man with a good sense of humour, so maybe he grew the beard as a self-reminder that the People's Eyebrow, that aloha kama'aina island-time grin (he's Hawaiian) and the ability to pec-pop had to be ruthlessly expunged from the dull, humourless, blinkered Luke Hobbs? But if you want an action movie that doesn't make you want to reach for the Advil, that has characters with actual character, emotional depth, appropriate light-touch banter and a character-led storyline that manages deft, subtle, meaningful, witty and droll, then F&F5 is a good one to go with - and because each movie cleverly includes the next one's "teaser" post-credits, if you decide you want the story to end "here", you just hit stop on the DVD at the point you want. I will say that F&F5, being a transition movie, is in a lot of ways the first half of the movie, with F&F6 the second half, but that only makes it better as the story and characters are given proper time and attention in each movie (contrast with the latter Harry Potter movies which were a nonsensical mishmash that relied on the audience being familiar with the books and able to mentally fill in the blanks) - I suspect that with F&F7, the aim will be another "3 chapter visual novel" for the "second story-arc" comprising of this as chapter 1, 6/Tokyo Drift as chapter 2 and 7 as chapter three/epilogue to F&F8. However apparently F&F7 has been "rushed" into 2014 production and Justin Lin is not directing so I will withhold judgement on that.

I am a big Fast and Furious fan. Having seen all of them, I think this one is the best! Then the first one "the fast and the furious" comes second in my ranking. The scenes look good. The plot is just a genius idea. The duo Paul Walker and Vin Diesel works extremely well. Dwayne Johnson is impressive. Jordana Brewster is amazing. Tyrell is really funny. The whole cast is just perfect. I just can't wait for Fast and Furious 6 to come out. ps: you have to watch till the very very end of the end credits to know wh'os in Fast & Furious 6