Sequel City — Fast Five (featuring Lindsay Jo)
Published by Pop Bunker, May 2, 2011
Welcome back to Sequel City! In this edition, we take a look at the new film in The Fast and the Furious series, Fast Five. I saw it opening night with a few friends, one of which happened to be fellow Pop Bunker contributor Lindsay Jo! (She does some killer Deadliest Catch recapping articles and also pens Tales of a Comic Book Virgin.)
In a Sequel City first, Lindsay graciously agreed to guest star in this column. Here is our lightly edited conversation on the vehicular showdown between Vin Diesel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Fast Five.
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Steve B: I hadn’t seen the first movie in forever and didn’t really dig it. I was never into cars, and the whole car mod thing rang hollow with me. Kind of shrugged about it.
In order to get caught up for this one, I saw all of the first four movies (2001’s The Fast and the Furious, 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious, 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and 2009’s Fast and Furious) in one week. And you know what, they weren’t horrible!
Lindsay, have you seen 2, 3, or 4?
Lindsay Jo: Yes, but I don’t remember 2 at all, didn’t like 3, and only remember the climax of 4. You know the original came out 10 years ago? Good grief.
SB: I know. The movies are really different from the original, which is why I think I like them better now. They went from being about street racing to…Ocean’s 11 in cars?
LJ: Ocean’s 11 and Gone in 60 Seconds, stealing cars and huge amounts of money.
SB: Did you enjoy Fast Five?
LJ: It was everything I could have asked for in a Fast-series movie. Hot guys, hot cars, hot gunfire.
SB: I enjoyed it too, quite a lot actually…not for the dudes though. (Although even I have to admit The Rock looked HUGE and was always sweaty!) I’ve talked smack about the movies before, but any time the guys are in cars, chasing or being chased, it’s a lot of fun.
LJ: The movies are good for what they are. If I want deep, philosophical thought, I’ll pull down one of my books from college. If I want to be entertained and see lots of big muscles, I’ll watch one of the Fast movies.
SB: You must have been happy on the muscles score—readers should be aware that Lindsay’s two favorite drool-worthy actors are Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson. How great was it for you to see them on screen together?
LJ: I’m surprised the screen didn’t explode when they were both on at the same time!
SB: (Here’s a quick look at the plot: Dwayne Johnson (forever “The Rock” in my mind, and I think Lindsay’s too) plays a special federal agent charged with the task of finding and capturing Diesel, Paul Walker and Jordana Brewster after Walker and Brewster liberate Diesel from a prison bus. The trail leads to Rio, a corrupt and lawless place where The Rock and his elite team can ruthlessly hunt down our heroes while they plan their own shenanigans.)
A one-on-one fight between The Rock and Diesel was inevitable. Lindsay, what did you think of the main fight between them?
LJ: I thought it was cool that The Rock seemed to bust out some of his WWF moves. He was my favorite wrestler back in the day. I kept wondering if he gave Vin pointers for the scene on how to pretend to get beat up!
SB: Vin usually doesn’t get beat up. And I’ve noticed he only throws right hands when he’s on top of people.
LJ: I wasn’t exactly looking at his fists.
SB: Ok. What was your favorite scene?
LJ: The Rock/Vin Diesel fight scene was good, and…
(Here Lindsay mentions an awesome scene that happens too late in the movie for me to feel comfortable about including it without giving too much away. It is great though, and it’s my favorite scene too: deliciously overdone, over-the-top, grand spectacle James Bond kind of thing. It had me smiling while it was going on—high praise from an action sequence!)
SB: Least favorite scene?
LJ: The beginning when Vin yelled at…Rick, was it? Not very good acting, that.
SB: Rick? (There is no Rick in this movie! She’s thinking of Vince, the bearded fellow from the original; he shows up again.) I hear you. The serious parts of it just suck, in this one and throughout the series.
LJ: Yeah, but Vin is really good at a specific kind of intense. He can do the “I’m going to hunt you down, then I’m going to kill you” thing. He can do badass, like in The Chronicles of Riddick. But the emotional stuff? Awkward.
SB: He has big muscles though.
LJ: Yes.
SB: Plot?
LJ: Is that a question?
SB: Yes. I think there was too much plot, basically, too many twists and swerves.
LJ: Nah, I was down with that. Pretty much every scene had Vin and/or a fast car and/or The Rock…all good with me.
SB: I think it was 20 minutes too long.
LJ: I like how they brought everyone in. (She’s referring to the team Vin assembles: pretty much every surviving protagonist from the first four movies.)
SB: I agree, and I liked that they didn’t explain them all.
LJ: No need for that. Even though I couldn’t remember who went with what movie, it was easy to see that everyone was established.
SB: Ok, to wrap up, would you recommend seeing Fast Five?
LJ: Absolutely. If you want to see an entertaining action flick where everyone on screen is hot and there are more fast cars in a five-mile radius than a NASCAR event, Fast Five is your gig.
SB: Me too. In fact, this was my favorite movie in the series so far. It was thrilling and fun and silly, everything an action movie should be. Any parting words?
LJ: Yes. I really did go to this movie for its deep philosophical questions and multi-faceted plotli—nope, just can’t say that with a straight face. I really just went to see Vin Diesel and The Rock. And left satisfied. A Friday night well spent, in my opinion.
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So there you have it, two thumbs up from Steve and Lindsay. Although thumbs are probably severely copyrighted…maybe two other easily identifiable metaphors of acceptance from Steve and Lindsay?
Please leave us some comments, you guys, and follow Lindsay and me on Twitter if you feel like it. Sequel City will be back in a few weeks with the premiere of the new sequel, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Until then…
Oh, and make sure to stay through the credits of Fast Five! The group Lindsay and I were with didn’t, and we missed a scene that we had to catch later on YouTube (where we’re sure it was uploaded legally and with the express permission of the movie’s producers…)