Fast Five

Rating: 7/10 (15 September 2011)

Frankly speaking, I was unforeseen that this adrenal-driven car-chasing franchise had have such a longevity during this decade since THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS in 2001 (neither am I an automobile zealot). Now here arrives the fifth installment, which surprisingly has unequivocally became the best of the series (quite rare when it comes terms with sequels).
One ground rule is that the team behind knows exactly what their audience's hearts want and exaggerates it to a breathtaking effect, e.g. several vintage-model cars (which I am sheerly ignorant of), brawny men bare fist combat (Vin and Dwayne, which makes Paul Walker looks more wooden and sulky), a mission-impossible scheme, a tint of romantics and sexy appeal using its hottie female cast (Gal Gadot, again, the former Miss Israel), and the most essential one, a prolonged vehicle-chase with its eye-popping collateral damage, which is the ace in the hole!
Setting against a Rio de Janeiro backdrop, the second time this year after the successful animation RIO among Hollywood A-list blockbusters, director Justin Lin (who was also behind the wheels of the 3rd and 4th film) shrewdly maneuvers an OCEAN ELEVEN mode heist plot to bolster the intensive impulsion of the rapid tempo. Plus the visual effect is high-end enough to coerce me to neglect the implausibility of certain details.
My eyes are satisfied while my brain cannot find anything to whine about at all once (during the afterthought, there are plenty of bugs there though), so one sure thing is that FAST FIVE has set a new beacon for the Hollywood mega-budgeted action films, it is a fierce competition which principally hinges on script writers' imagination, I also invent the punchline for the production company: we can make anything look real on screen, as long as there is a mind can reach it!