Still drifting away from car porn, still provides a nice heist.

Rating: Null/10 (28 August 2011)

I fully admit that I have a love affair with this series of misadventures that focus heavily on the beauty of fast cars. While it's only the original The Fast and The Furious that is the lone solid entry in the franchise, that doesn't lessen much how giddy I got enjoying just how silly things got in the ridiculously titled 2 Fast 2 Furious. Then, a detour to Japan for the third film Tokyo Drift. Most don't think very much of that one, where Dom only is featured for a moment and the kind of racing is more than a little queer.
It really wasn't until Fast and Furious, the sadly subtitle or numberless flick from 2009 I found myself not as pleased with what was being done with these various collection of meat heads and grease monkeys. Slowly the movies were focusing less on the culture of street racing and more toward generic chase action films.
Sadly that degeneration has come to a full head here in Fast Five. Call it Oceans Eleven with a hotter, if less talented, cast of actors. Yes, the gang is all here. Even Han who was introduced and killed in Tokyo Drift which apparently hasn't happened yet in the timeline of the films. Yeah, bitches technically 4 and 5 are prequels to 3 and yet sequels to 1 and 2. And if that isn't redonkulous enough, we now have intertwined The Rock into these things. He steals the show here, with the action heating up in Rio where there are not only plenty of angry birds, but plenty of cops and robbers heisting to be done by Dom and his crew that also includes Luda, Tyrese, a nameless woman, and a pair of unique locals that I'm fairly certain are life partners.
Replacing the street racing culture — quite literally, since just when the film's scattershot script decides to go there, the scene is cut — there is a boring idea of ganking a drug lord's bank vault. The fact it's hidden by the corrupt police is just a great excuse to have all the confusion action as white-knuckle a thrill ride as possible.
Most of the acting is worse than ever, but there are several set pieces that work really bigger and better than ever. And as much as I'd totally would love to slag on just how bad a Fast Five should be, it's just a lot of hyperactive FUN! FUN! FUN! So basically even though I'm not fond of the choice to change the core of what these films are about, they still bring a lot of what I want: Over the top stunts with easy-going characters that say dumb things like: "Give me the veggies." and "You know what this is? I'll tell you what this is." Along with overheated testosterone fights.