Justin Lin and Chris Morgan are just what the franchise needed

Rating: 6/10 (6 May 2011)

This is the fifth movie in the "Fast and Furious" franchise. Fifth. You'd think the franchise would burn out by the third film and drift into direct-to-video territory like so many unfortunate film franchises today (here's looking at you, American Pie), but Fast Five sort of breaks the taboo and proves that, even at the fifth movie, it can still be entertaining and appealing as hell.
Sure the acting and screenplay aren't exactly Oscar worthy, but for this genre it does the job great. Vin and Paul, along with many of the reunited cast of the franchise (Matt Schulze, Tyrese, Ludicrous, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot among others) make for a damn good action team, and the nostalgic value of seeing these different sequel's characters teaming up and joking around is one of the best aspects of the film. Oh, that and seeing Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel duke it out mano-e-mano, to see who is the better tough guy.
Chris Morgan and Justin Lin are to take credit here. The first movie was solid, but light on acting and story. The second movie was just dumb. The third movie in which Lin and Morgan joined in, was a bit dull but still kept some interesting bits. The fourth movie reunited the original cast members but it felt a bit boring due to some story developments, but hey, you can't blame them for trying.
This time around, however, Lin and Morgan improved a lot. Morgan tweaks with the sequel, transforming it into a heist film rather than the first and third films which focused on racing, and the second and fourth films which focused on getting a badder criminal. In this sequel the baddie is a corrupt politician/gang leader played by Joaquim de Almeida (Bucho from "Desperado") so you know he's going to be a really nasty villain. The characters are now quite fleshed out and interact more with each other, showing a more older and vulnerable side of them since the last time we saw them in previous films.
Lin shows off his (improved) knack for action sequences. There are some really good stuff to be seen here, one of which involves a train and the other which involves the near-total destruction of the streets of Rio de Janeiro. What is impressive is that most, if not all of these action sequences are shot live-action as opposed to CGI (I never liked the climax involving CG tunnels in the fourth movie). While there are few racing scenes, the last action set-piece, is truly a sight to behold. It is preposterous, yet utterly exciting and hilarious to watch due to the truly amazing stunt work put together by Lin and crew. I've never seen destruction this frenzied and exciting since James Bond's pleasant tank drive in St. Petersburg in "GoldenEye".
It has to be said anyway - this is the best of the franchise, hands down. Morgan and Lin took the franchise to a different and quite mature direction, and let's hope the sixth (yes, it was mentioned a week ago) will be as good, if not better, than this one. This is great entertainment and a solid start to the summer.
P.S. Stay after the first part of the credits. Trust me.
Overall rating: 73/100