Not really all that good.

Rating: 6/10 (28 June 2013)

Last year I rented FAST FIVE despite not really caring about the previous flicks. I had only seen the first film when it came out and some of TOKYO DRIFT on TV. I gave the fifth film a shot anyway because the trailers made it look really fun and it got good word of mouth. To my surprise, I enjoyed it. It was a nice fun stunt car heist flick with no pretensions of being anything other than it was.
So here I am, watching the first film and I quickly realize why I didn't embrace the series during its initial films. This first installment is basically POINT BREAK with cars, but without The Buse. The first race is pretty fun at first but after that it just didn't do much for me. It takes itself too seriously and Paul Walker isn't really much of a leading man to carry the drama this flick tries to inject with the whole thing with him being torn between friendship and duty. Boring.