Movie Review - Fast Five

Holy crap, the Fast and Furious franchise actually has a movie at 79% on Rotten Tomatoes!

Everyone is sweating in this movie, especially the Rock.  No seriously.

Looking back at what I just typed, I can't believe what I just said.  I mean, it scored a percent higher than Thor!  Ratings aside, director Justin Lin helms his third Fast film to date, and with every installment, he seems to learn more and more.  His latest, and loudest, Fast Five explodes with a great start to the summer movie lineup.  This time, the movie actually has a pretty good plot, focusing on each of the series regulars' strengths as drivers whilst trying to evade the law.  Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, as well as fan favorites from every Fast movie to date, such as Han from Tokyo Drift and Tyrese from 2 Fast.  Yes, Tyrese still has stupid one liners, but that's what I expected from his character.  All in all, the acting isn't the best, mainly because when Vin tries to act (whether as a bad-ass or being sentimental) it's just awkward.  Oh man, AWKWARD.  Bringing in Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was a stroke of genius, giving the film some fresh blood and also some bigger star power.  It was also great to see Vin and The Rock fight each other in a giant steroid brawl.

I hope to see Justin Lin return for the 6th installment ( I mean, come on, if you stayed until after the credits, you'd have been treated to a crazy twist that pretty much null and voids the 4th movie completely.)  Lin expertly chose to have more practical effects that CGI, which is commendable, especially if you take into account how many crazy stunts were in this movie.  Cars flying off bridges, cars exploding, cars crashing, cars driving around with giant bank vaults attached to the back.  You name it, Lin does it.  It all looks great too, and I'd love to see a special features section the DVD on how they achieve some of the stunts.

Red Bull drinking "bros" cheer as Vin and Paul get ready to bail.

After seeing this movie a couple weeks ago, I ran to my car and sat there wondering if I should peel off into the night.  It wasn't an Oscar-caliber movie by any means, with it's corny acting and goofy characters.  It was, however, entertaining as hell.  That's how the Fast franchise works.  If you leave that theater and want to re-create every car chase sequence from the film, you know it worked.  It has never been about the people in the films; its about the cars.  As soon as you realize this, you will start to enjoy these movies a heck of a lot more.

4 out of 5 Stars