Fast Five
for intense sequences of violence and action, sexual content and language.
Reviewed by: Joseph Yates
CONTRIBUTOR
| Moral Rating: | Very Offensive |
| Moviemaking Quality: |
|
| Primary Audience: | Adults Teens |
| Genre: | Action Crime Thriller Drama 3D Sequel |
| Length: | 2 hr. 10 min. |
| Year of Release: | 2011 |
| USA Release: |
April 29, 2011 (wide) DVD: October 4, 2011 |
| Featuring |
Vin Diesel … Dominic Toretto Paul Walker … Brian O’Conner Jordana Brewster … Mia Tyrese Gibson … Roman Chris “Ludacris” Bridges … Tej Matt Schulze … Vince Sung Kang … Han Gal Gadot … Gisele Tego Calderon … Leo Don Omar … Santos Joaquim de Almeida … Reyes Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson … Hobbs Elsa Pataky … Elena See all » |
| Director |
Justin Lin |
| Producer |
Dark Side Productions Original Film Amanda Lewis … executive producer See all » |
| Distributor |
 Universal Pictures
|
What guy doesn’t like watching a movie with fast cars, fighting, and explosions? “Fast Five” comes at you with both barrels. The beginning starts with a jailbreak, moving on almost seamlessly to another country where the racers (Paul Walker and Vin Diesel’s characters) are lying low. Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) makes a call for another “job.” All does not go as planned, which then sets up the story for the rest of the film.
The story itself is very well done, with some interesting plot twists. It is cohesive and believable as a film. Each character in the movie goes together and brings the story to life. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s character, an FBI agent named Lucas Hobbs, provides an excellent conflict for the racers. He is a no-nonsense tough-guy agent, who sometimes takes matters into his own hands. The fight scenes, car chases, and explosions are all nicely done and good special effects. The only minor quibble: the jailbreak scene at the beginning suffers from some second-rate CGI. Other than that, the effects team did a very good job with this film.
“Fast Five” is rated PG-13, and for good reason. The film is constant action, featuring explosions, fist fights, gun fights, and neck-breaking (literally). Many people are killed in fights, including FBI agents and criminals. The violence, although high, is not that bloody. There are street-racing scenes, ogling scantily clad women, some of whom are suggestively dancing. A female character is pregnant, but not married. There is mention of “vaginal action,” and one female character is asked if she would spread her legs. Foul language is moderate, with one f-word and several uses each of h-ll, b-tch, sh-t, d-mn, g-dd-mn, and a—.
When FBI agents are thought of, they are thought of as good guys. However, Dwayne Johnson’s character Lucas Hobbs shows the audience how a life of violence can desensitize and turn you cold. When reminded that the street racers they are pursuing are people, Hobbs remarks that they are just faces on a page. This emotional detachment can be seen elsewhere, as he shoots an enemy, when the enemy was unarmed and probably willing to surrender. This illustrates King Solomon’s point: “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” (Proverbs 4:23, NLT), and yet also proves Jeremiah correct in saying “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, NASB). Movies like this one are fun, but avoid growing desensitized. For some people, it takes a lot to desensitize them. Others it doesn’t take much, at all. As Solomon said, watch your heart.
“Fast Five” is a fun action flick to kick off the summer movie season. Well-acted, excellent special effects, and a great story make this movie a fun choice.
Violence: Heavy / Profanity: Moderate / Sex/Nudity: Moderate
See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.
Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 4
Remind your teen that this is entertainment—and revenge and human collateral damage are not okay.
Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4
Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 4
There is strong emphasis placed on the value of family throughout the movie, which was very touching and gave it a lot of appeal.
As to its moral content, the review does a great job of letting anybody interested know what to expect. If you go see it, don’t expect rainbows and unicorns, OR conservative values, such as modest dress for women, sex out of wedlock=a bad thing, etc. I’ve overheard comments by other Christians who innocently (or unthinkingly) went to see it and were horrified. It’s ridiculous for people to go see it and come away “shocked and saddened” by certain aspects of the content, when the facts are readily available, to say nothing of the obvious reputation of the movie’s predecessors. This is Hollywood—either lower your expectations or avoid it!
Again, a great action movie with a happy ending, and plenty of ethical questions for the rhetorically minded.
Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 4½
Wanna do an action movie right? Watch “Tombstone,” or “Casino Royale” or the real McCoy “Taken”. “Fast Five” is simply your standard derivative sequel drivel.
I’m really alarmed by the mounting desensitization to violence we’re all under. In “Fast Five,” the leads murder and maim dozens of cops and innocent bystanders with their romp through the streets of Rio, with a 2-ton safe as their wrecking ball. Guys with families, mortgages, lives of their own.
Yeah, going back to the previous comment about the nature of this movie, you can laugh and say I’m thinking too much into it. Sure, but that’s the beauty of desensitization. You watch a movie like this, and you wanna root for the guys that steal, kill, and destroy. “It’s okay to wreak havoc on a crowded city”; oh wait. What was the line that made it all okay? “You’ve got every corrupt cop on your tail.” Oh okay, every freakin’ one of these 4 dozen cops chasing you is corrupt, so it’s okay if their brains splatter all over the pavement so you can steal 100 mil. Yeah, that’s totally justified.
Movies like this or last year’s “Kick-***” are dangerous. They highlight violence without any real, substantive repercussions. End of story.
I don’t endorse this film, for anyone. Christian or not, it matters not. Aside from the ethical dilemma, it’s just poorly done. Now full of anachronisms, the series inadvertently created with the third movie (“Tokyo Drift”) still being the chronologically latest movie, the “Fast and Furious” franchise is quickly jumping the shark.
Bury the series, and don’t let it go on to be a bad run-on sentence like the Jason or Freddy movies. When you’ve got the Rock oiled up and dripping sweat from every pore in every scene, plus M. Rodriguez being resurrected from the ashes, you’re getting there. Fast. And furiously. Maybe that’s the final joke?
Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3
Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 3
Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 4
It also has a braless actress with erect nipples and an immodest bikini bottom. It also ends with—in one case—a gang member being involved with 2 good time girls—but they are properly dressed.
That all having been said, this is a fun movie, with huge amounts of action and great photography with beautiful backdrops. It is completely unrealistic, but it is fun. My view is that it is best for adolescents not to see this, BUT if they do, they should be accompanied by an adult and counseled thereafter. From a Christian perspective this is not a good movie, but at a fundamental level of rough justice—poetic justice—in a fallen world, it does not deviate too far from fundamental principles of right and wrong.
Interracial relationships do not offend me, but they are not all that common. I am getting sick of the new trend in movies of EVERY relationship being interracial/interethnic in some pathetic attempt to deflect critical scrutiny from the lack of proper relationship dynamics and development. The relationships in this movie are little more than “cardboard cut-outs”. The female wardrobe budget for this movie appears to have been $400 or less. It is a failing—women are not men.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4