The 'Citizen Kane' of Street Racing Heist Reunion Flicks

Rating: 8/10 (29 April 2011)

Fast Five
Before I lose any of my movie critic street cred (assuming I even have any), I'd like to point out that I'm not actually placing the fifth Fast & Furious movie among the ranks of great cinema pieces of history. I'm not even suggesting that it will be the go to reference for pretentious people of the future to over hype when they want to sound like they know far more than they do about movies. I am simply stating that amongst its peers, it is a stand out piece of work.
The fifth installment of the Fast & Furious series takes up right where the fourth left off, with the car savvy and fan favorite criminal mastermind Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) on a prison bus on his way to the big house, with his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) and her beau, former F.B.I. agent Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) fast on their way to busting him out. This shouldn't be a spoiler for anyone who has seen the trailers and noticed how much Vin Diesel isn't in prison, but they succeed in freeing Dom.
The trio soon find themselves in trouble with the wrong bad guys after a botched heist, which subsequently ends up getting them framed for criminal activities that put them in the sites of U.S. DSS Special Agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson) and his team of basically government backed bounty hunters. Dom and Brian come up with a plan to get revenge on the bad guys, and make a little cash on the side, but in order for it to work they are gonna need a little help. From pretty much everyone they've ever met.
This is where the reunion aspect of Fast Five emerges. The fourth film in the series (Fast & Furious) touched on a fun idea of reuniting the cast from the original film, which hadn't been together since then, and adding a few new faces along the way. This installment ups the ante (and the fun) by bringing back most of the important characters from all three of the original films, including Roman and Tej (Tyrese Gibson and Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges) from 2 Fast, 2 Furious, Han (Sung Kang) from Tokyo Drift, and several other familiar faces along the way. Getting the original band back together in four was fun. But getting the whole band back together in five really takes things up a notch.
And therein lies the considerable fun and charm of Fast Five. This is not grand cinema, even as far as action movies go. No ground is broken, the plot is weak, the schemes are too elaborate, and the physics are mind boggling at best. But we are five movies deep in this franchise now. If you are looking for thought provoking action dramas or Bourne style visceral hand to hand choreography, you should already know you are in the wrong place. Fast Five promises little more than the fun of watching hot girls and muscle men driving fast and beating the tar out of one another. And it delivers that in spades. It even throws in some big guns and explosions for good measure. Movies should be judged primarily on how well they can hold up to the promise of what they try to be. Fast Five is supposed to be loud, fun, in your face escapism. Something with a lot of familiar faces, some good laughs, and a lot of pulse pounding action. It is all of that and probably a little more. If you do not like Fast & Furious movies anyway, then you probably take your movies too seriously, or at least don't know how to separate when you should take them seriously and when you shouldn't. Either way, you are definitely buying the wrong ticket. However, if you are a Fast & Furious franchise fan, or simply like a little mindless fun, you are in for a great ride. This one is the best of the bunch.