Watch it with half the brain you used to watch Fast Five with

Rating: 6/10 (4 June 2013)

Oh wow, this is what you call jumping the shark. It all started in 2001 with a low budget film about the street racing subculture. Now its become an action film franchise with over the top machismo. Each film progressively chipped away more logic and physics.
Now I actually liked Fast Five because it actually had a believable premise given the context. Yes it was cheesy and over testosteroned but it actually had a well paced plot. However the cast has ballooned to a very large size, this film's become very unfocused. So much so that every character is now laughably one dimensional. There are numerous contrived plot points and no character ever questions anything. The Rock's character is after a bad guy but since the bad guy uses cars, oh, I need Vin Diesel AND HIS TEAM for this. And yeah, everyone is willing no question.
I thought that Fast Five actually concluded the characters story arcs but they wanted to due a fan service by resurrecting Michelle Rodriguez. And it was done in the most contrived fashion as possible by giving her amnesia.
The film did have some pretty good set pieces but sadly you saw all these action sequences in the trailer. And thats because the film slows down in the second act and it tries to liven up by even putting in a street race in the middle of a surprisingly empty London. And that's weird seeing how each film's plot revolves around how many car stunts they can put in.
And the action scenes really make the vault drag in Fast Five physically plausible. There is so much flying around and defying gravity, I'll bet you'll see less in the upcoming Superman film. And the physics of this film is so inconsistent. In the tank scene we see the villain engage in casual murder by pancaking all the cars in a highway yet it seems to have trouble crushing Tyrese's car. Also the plane scene in the climax; that must be the longest runway in the world.
I can see why Justin Lin took this franchise to that many films, because the initial ones weren't that profitable. However at over 2 hours long, you start wondering how you could take any of the cheesy dialogue that fills this film seriously.
Oh well, its pure popcorn pleasure. It knows what it does, even though you'll be palming your forehead at many instances.