Step 1: Trailer!
IF YA SMELLL'L'L'L'L'L'L'LAH!!
Step 2: Premise!
The trailer just lays it all out. If you seen ANY of the past four movies, you'll know that they involve dudes, street racing, illegal stuff and some other generics thrown over. The series pretty much banks on Vin Diesel's (what an appropriate name) gruff badassery and a generous sprinkling of flashy cars and flashier wimmenz to pull it through.
This time around, it's the last movie. The last job. The last hurrah. So ALL of the main characters from the previous 4 movies are in, plus a few new faces.
Step 3: Review!
Break it down!
Acting: 6
Vin Diesel is his usual self. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is his usual self. Paul Walker still stiff. Tyrese Gibson still the funny black guy. Women mostly eye-candy and/or heavily accented hence, like most of the cars, considered "exotic". The villains act decently enough. Acting's not what this franchise is about, man. C'mon.
Soundtrack: 5.5
Dunno, didn't notice it much. Some generic Brazilian/South American music thrown in cuz it's set in Rio. Dramatic volume swells whenever the biggest cliche music moments could be had.
Genre Specific Rating: 7.5
It's a popcorn action movie built around pretty women, badass men and fast cars. It gets the women but doesn't give them the Michael Bay treatment; so it's below that bar. It has the badass men, but I didn't get the satisfaction from seeing The Rock(I shall call him only that) and Riddick thrown down that I thought I would. It was pretty physical and all Hulk-ey but I dunno. Good, not awesome. Lots of gunfights though. Proper blazing machine-gun situations and henchmen deaths. The cars, lastly, aren't featured similarly to the previous offerings. I think it started in the fourth movie, Fast & Furious, where the cars just became part of the scenery. Just elements that you were supposed to accept as being central to the situation yet not the scene, if that makes any sense. Whereas in the first three, they were the showpiece. The races, the flash, the tricks were all center stage. Attempt to seem mature, considering the more serious situations in movies 4 and 5, maybe. The lack of solid script and story however just makes the car-porn gap seem even more obvious though.
General feel: 7
I liked the movie when I was watching it, overall. Wasn't a bad way to kill time. However many of the dialogues were, predictably cheesy and cliched. Especially those reserved for The Rock and Vin Diesel. Highlighted even more so by the aforementioned dramatic volume swells in the background. The funny moments cut through, though they weren't at all inventive either(stereotype used: black people are funny), but at least they weren't the sort that fell flat and the audience had a good time. The massive car chase towards the end was loud and violent but lacked the incisive intensity of famous chases like the one in Ronin or The Transporter. The action ramp-up and the subsequent +15 rating did help but nowhere near enough to make this anything better than "above average". Even for the urban popcorn-action genre.
Final: 6.5
Good enough time-killing watch. Cinema's only though. Watching it at home will probably take away more than half of fun, however much of it there is.
The trailer just lays it all out. If you seen ANY of the past four movies, you'll know that they involve dudes, street racing, illegal stuff and some other generics thrown over. The series pretty much banks on Vin Diesel's (what an appropriate name) gruff badassery and a generous sprinkling of flashy cars and flashier wimmenz to pull it through.
This time around, it's the last movie. The last job. The last hurrah. So ALL of the main characters from the previous 4 movies are in, plus a few new faces.
Step 3: Review!
Break it down!
Acting: 6
Vin Diesel is his usual self. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is his usual self. Paul Walker still stiff. Tyrese Gibson still the funny black guy. Women mostly eye-candy and/or heavily accented hence, like most of the cars, considered "exotic". The villains act decently enough. Acting's not what this franchise is about, man. C'mon.
Soundtrack: 5.5
Dunno, didn't notice it much. Some generic Brazilian/South American music thrown in cuz it's set in Rio. Dramatic volume swells whenever the biggest cliche music moments could be had.
Genre Specific Rating: 7.5
It's a popcorn action movie built around pretty women, badass men and fast cars. It gets the women but doesn't give them the Michael Bay treatment; so it's below that bar. It has the badass men, but I didn't get the satisfaction from seeing The Rock(I shall call him only that) and Riddick thrown down that I thought I would. It was pretty physical and all Hulk-ey but I dunno. Good, not awesome. Lots of gunfights though. Proper blazing machine-gun situations and henchmen deaths. The cars, lastly, aren't featured similarly to the previous offerings. I think it started in the fourth movie, Fast & Furious, where the cars just became part of the scenery. Just elements that you were supposed to accept as being central to the situation yet not the scene, if that makes any sense. Whereas in the first three, they were the showpiece. The races, the flash, the tricks were all center stage. Attempt to seem mature, considering the more serious situations in movies 4 and 5, maybe. The lack of solid script and story however just makes the car-porn gap seem even more obvious though.
General feel: 7
I liked the movie when I was watching it, overall. Wasn't a bad way to kill time. However many of the dialogues were, predictably cheesy and cliched. Especially those reserved for The Rock and Vin Diesel. Highlighted even more so by the aforementioned dramatic volume swells in the background. The funny moments cut through, though they weren't at all inventive either(stereotype used: black people are funny), but at least they weren't the sort that fell flat and the audience had a good time. The massive car chase towards the end was loud and violent but lacked the incisive intensity of famous chases like the one in Ronin or The Transporter. The action ramp-up and the subsequent +15 rating did help but nowhere near enough to make this anything better than "above average". Even for the urban popcorn-action genre.
Final: 6.5
Good enough time-killing watch. Cinema's only though. Watching it at home will probably take away more than half of fun, however much of it there is.
