Now Showing: Fast Five

By Meredith

My guy friends convinced me that I needed to go to a midnight showing of Fast Five in IMAX. Not my typical genre of choice, but I was pleasantly surprised with the film. Unfortunately, the projector broke before the end, so I can’t tell you how (allegedly) awesome the final car chase scene was. But I can tell you how cool it was to watch everyone in the theater throw cups at the screen…

Fast Five picks up with fugitive Dominic Toretto’s struggle to break out from prison and his subsequent hide out in Rio. Of course “one last job” must happen and a gang is brought together to rob Rio’s top drug lord. American FBI Agent Hobbs, played by Dwayne Johnson, comes to Rio to track down Toretto. Car chases and explosions ensue. Alright, it’s not that complex, but it’s pretty cool to watch.

And just to prove to you guys that I’m not ashamed to admit I’m wrong (Birthers, I’m looking at you to follow my lead), I bring you the list of the week.

Top 4 reasons why I shouldn’t have judged Fast Five by its cover (…or trailer…):

Car chases can be fun. Who knew, right? But it’s hard to not feel secondhand adrenaline rush while watching Dominic and Brian escape trouble just in the nick of time. It’s a lot more lively than the Royal Wedding at least. And there’s a little bonding moment when the guys race police cars down the street. Not gonna lie, the whole movie sort of made me want to hop in an expensive car and race Vin Diesel down the street.

It’s not actually anti-feminist. I initially thought that the only women in The Fast and the Furious franchise were half-naked chicks sitting on cars. Turns out, there are kind of some badass female characters. Mia is hot, smart, a hella good driver. Oh, and she bagged Paul Walker’s character so she’s clearly doing something right. And there’s an epic female police officer working on Hobbs’s force. Girl power, yo.

Hot men. Okay, so you probably could have gathered this one from the trailer, but there are some sexy men in this movie. Vin Diesel, you have some epic muscles. Paul Walker, don’t even get me started on your eyes. Ludacris, I could literally never get enough of you. And Dwayne Johnson, just, marry me. That’s all.

It might actually be funny? No, they obviously didn’t hire Hollywood’s top comedy writers to pen the script, but that’s part of the fun. Fast Five is self-aware of itself as a face-value action flick and they work it. The cast has surprisingly good chemistry and honestly they all just look like they’re having a good time. Some of my favorite scenes were when the gang was just sitting around riffing or Dwayne Johnson was delivering some of his tough guy lines.

So, if your guy friends try to drag you to Fast Five this weekend, don’t knock it til you try it. That was my mistake, and now I’ll never hear the end of having to admit I was wrong.

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