The action is awesome, but who cares about the plot?

Rating: 6/10 (8 April 2012)

Back in 2001 The Fast and the Furious was released in cinema and was a hit; but who would have thought this series would have lasted for five films, with at least two more on the way. Even more surprising is that the fifth film of the series is considered the best of the series.
Fast Five starts where Fast & Furious left off, with Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) and Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) breaking Dominic (Vin Diesel) out of a prison and the three flee to Rio de Janeiro. Running low on cash Brian and Mia agree to do rob cars from the DEA on a train but end up crossing crime lord Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) who controls the Favelas of the city. With information about Reyes' operation, the trio form a team to make on of the most audacious robberies imaginable. But on their trial is Luke Hobbs (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), a Diplomatic Security Service agent sent by the FBI to bring Brian and Dominic back to America.
Because of the success of the previous three films, Justin Lin has become a in demand director, being linked to The Wolverine and reboot of The Terminator and Highlander. He certainly shows he is a good action director, delivering solid action sequences like the early train robbery, the shootout and chase in the Favelas and the car chase in the city. They are crisp, well edited, fun and have physicality because of use of practical effects and stunt work. They were easily the best parts of the film, alone with Johnson's show stealing performance. He had the best lines and he has the charisma and physique to be threat. He was funny and this is the type of film Johnson should be doing instead of the family comedies he has been doing. The film needed more of him.
Acting has never been a strong point of the series and fans want to see action sequences and car races/chases. Diesel is a decent action lead, he is certainly convincing during action scenes against Johnson. Brewster, Walker and Sung Kang are okay if a little flat. Tyresse Gibson is still annoying but is not quite the idiot he was in 2 Fast 2 Furious. Just do not expect any acting master classes. Though de Almeida is oily as ever.
Plot and writing are fairly thin throughout. Fast Five is a heist film where they want to rob a big bad gangster whilst trying to avoid getting arrest themselves. The big twist is that they use muscle cars for the robbery. Originally Fast Five started life as a sequel to the remake of The Italian Job but obviously evolved into a Fast and Furious sequel. It is your typical heist film, a crew is assembled, they make their preparations and follow the mark or scan locations, etc. But there are some silly moments, from making out the heroes are Robin Hood figures but never really expand on it and show they want the money for themselves and not giving it to the poor. There are moments showing that the characters to be a bit stupid, such as racing in police cars when they were meant to be uncover (and coming to that shouldn't police cars be very difficult to rob) and when they steal the safe of money it causes millions of dollars of damage and possibly would have killed about a dozen people. A more serious criticism is considering the material the running time Fast Five is too long for what it is, compared to say X-Men: First Class which needed the same running time or Rise of the Planet of the Apes which fitted in more in less. A running time of about 1 hour 45 minutes would have been more fitting. There also the typical leery nature of filming women focusing on their breasts and butts, there was even a plot point based on this. This is just fan services for a young male crowd. Finally the humour does fall flat and the film should have been played a bit more straight.
There are fun moments, certainly good action films and I do wish more films used practical effects these days. The plot is a little silly at times, it is over the top, but there are plenty of films from the 80s like that. It is not a great film but it is easy viewing.