Fast Five

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Brian O'Connor (played by Paul Walker) and Dominic Toretto (played by Vin Diesel) are on the run after O'Connor springs Toretto from a prison bus with the help of Toretto's sister Mia (played by Jordana Brewster). The three find themselves in Rio where they run afoul of a corrupt businessman played by Joaquim de Almeda. They then pull out every stop they can in order to rob de Almeda's crime boss by calling in allies from previous films in the franchise. But, to complicate things even further, the team is pursued by DSS agent Luke Hobbs (played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson). OK, the plot can get a little complicated, and the movie is a little too long at 130 minutes. Joaquim de Almeda's villain is better than the villains in the first four movies, but I still don't think the character is really anything special. I wanted to get those out of the way because those really are the only major issues I have with the movie. Even if the acting isn't award-caliber (but, who would go into Fast Five expecting that anyways), it's still good enough for this type of movie, and the cast all legitimately have good chemistry together. Truthfully, the standout is Dwayne Johnson. There's something about Luke Hobbs that really helped turn the Fast and the Furious movies around, and into something better than they've been in the past. The action in this is amazing because you can tell they're actually blowing up cars. There's very little (if any CGI) being used in this film. The heist itself is a ton of fun to watch. To this day, if I were asked to pick a favorite film in the Fast and the Furious franchise, I would have to say it's this one. Fast Five took the formula from the first four movies, and cranked it up to 11, which actually helps make this movie feel fresh and new. This is the film where it felt like the filmmakers finally understood what these movies were, and what they needed to be, and they just rolled with it.

9 / 10