Ranking Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s 5 Best Movies
By Josh.0
The cast of the movie ‘Fast and Furious 5’ (from left) director and producer Justin Lin, US actors Tyrese Gibson and Vin Diesel, Spanish actress Elsa Pataky, US actor Paul Walker, Israeli actress Gal Gadot and US actor Dwayne Johnson pose on April 28, 2011 in Marseille during a photocall. The movie will be released on French screens on May 04, 2011. AFP PHOTO / BORIS HORVAT (AFP/Getty Images)
1. Fast Five
Just to be clear, Fast Five isn’t a “good” movie in the traditional sense of the word when we talk about character development, story structure, or even plausible events. The plot is ludicrous. The stunts defy logic and physics. The music is loud and unapologetic. All of this is exactly why Fast Five succeeds so well as an action film.
After 2006’s Tokyo Drift (the third in the series), the Fast and Furious franchise seemed to be on life support, destined for a spot in the Hollywood cemetery. But things changed with 2009’s The Fast and the Furious, which not only did better at the box office than expected but also set up the events for Fast Five. The old showman’s edict of “always leave ’em wanting more” seemed to hold true and audiences wanted to see the fate of their favorite characters. While the previous films in the series had always found themselves grounded in some form of reality, it was Fast Five that took your high school physics book and threw it out the car window, while simultaneously spinning around and using it to jump onto a moving train.
Fast Five introduced us to the character who would come to represent the currently somehow-larger-than-he-already-was Dwayne Johnson as government agent/bounty hunter Luke Hobbs. Up to this point, critics had lauded the series as little more than a cliché buffet for those kids who trick out their cars at AutoZone but Fast Five was so over the top in such a fun way that it satisfied both fans and critics alike. Connie Ogle of the Miami Herald called it:
"“Embarrassingly fun, the sort of speedy, senseless, violence-crammed action flick that virtually defines the summer season, with superheroes who aren’t gods or crusaders in tights but guys in T-shirts and jeans who can drive cars really fast.”"
In the film, Hobbs is tasked with tracking down Vin Diesel’s title character, Dominic Torreto, and his brother-in-arms Brian O’Conner (played by the late Paul Walker) who are hiding out in Brazil. Gravity-defying hijinks ensue, a bank vault is dragged through the streets causing massive amounts of destruction, and Johnson seems to be sweating in every scene, presumably from all the effort it took to fit into his t-shirts which all seem one size too small.
To date, Johnson has appeared in three Fast and Furious movies which have collectively grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide. Next year’s eighth installment, The Fate of the Furious (get it…Fate…F8) will likely earn an insane amount of money as well since the series is going off in a new direction with Diesel’s character seemingly going rogue and working with cyber-terrorist Cipher, played by ageless beauty Charlize Theron.
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The Rock is one of the biggest movie stars in the world and long-time wrestling fans feel a sort of kinship with him because we have been there from the beginning. Before the red carpets, there was the blue chipper and there is a sense of pride in seeing all of his hard work pay off. If a guy with nothing more than seven bucks in his pocket can become a global icon, maybe there is hope for our dreams as well.