Fast & Furious 5 steers the series even further away from 'car-porn' and into more accessible over-the-top summer blockbuster territory. This one even has The Rock in it!The film opens as part four closed, with Dom's team rescuing their friend while he is en route to prison by orchestrating a bus crash that, in reality, would kill everyone inside. Of course, by now, reality has nothing to do with the Fast & Furious franchise: this is a preposterous slam-bang spectacle that would have left me with a big grin on my face if it hadn't been so drawn out. At well over two hours, part 5 is at least thirty minutes longer than it needed to be. Trim the fat and it might have been the most enjoyable one so far.Anyway, with Dom free (and somehow devoid of any injuries), the action moves to Brazil where the team decide to pull another car robbery (from a speeding train, no less). Lots of mayhem ensues, with more death defying stunts, after which the crew discover a computer chip hidden inside one of the vehicles that details the activities of Rio De Janeiro's top crime lord. Armed with this information, the gang decide to pull one more heist: steal the bad guy's money - all $100million of it. Meanwhile, top US agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is on their trail.Unfortunately, the preparation for the daring raid is where things tend to drag (although we do get to see Gal Gadot in a small bikini, so it's not all bad). The film does, however, eventually culminate in one of the craziest heist scenes in cinema, with Dom and Brian dragging a humongous metal safe around the streets of Rio, laying waste to buildings and cars in the process. Oh, and there's a car with a mini-gun that pops out of the sun roof! All of this is mindless popcorn fun if you can check your sense of logic at the door on the way in - it's just a shame that getting there is a bit of a slog at times.

This review contains spoilers.Fast Five is the sequel to Fast & Furious and is the fifth installment of The Fast and the Furious franchise. This movie takes place after the fourth installment and follows the Fast and the Furious crew as they attempt a heist to steal money from a corrupt businessman. The crew are pursued by Luke Hobbs, a United States Diplomatic Security Service agent played by Dwayne Johnson.Fast Five is an incredibly fun movie to watch. The plot is actually comprehensible like the first and the third movie in the franchise. The plot is basic but at the least it does not have seemingly random reasons for events to happen. This movie has a plot and build up to the heist that is fun, coo, and exciting to watch.The action of the movie does require the viewer to suspend their disbelief as impossible things happen on the screen. If the audience can do this, they can watch creative action scenes that are well shot and edited. The finale especially does a good job with making the entire movie engaging as the heist unfolds.The cast in general does a decent job. One typically does not watch these movies for the acting. The highlight in this movie is Luke Hobbs. Dwayne Johnson does a great job playing an indestructible agent that is focused on the mission. This character is played straight which leads him into funny situations. Dwayne Johnson has great delivery as this character. Most of all the scenes that he is in feel as if both Dwayne Johnson and the crew are having a lot of fun.I would recommend Fast Five. This movie is a solid entry in The Fast and the Furious franchise and is an incredibly fun movie.

Please please stop making these Fast and Furious movies. I'll have to start by explaining that I think auto racing is an obscenity. Why? Because it's a flagrant waste of fossil fuels for no reason except to watch big shiny loud things zooming around. So, a movie about cars racing around and smashing up in totally pointless ways ought to be a double obscenity.But I digress -- the only reason I rate this as high as 2/10 is that at least it's technically competent. It's just loud and dumb. There are some made-up bad guys and some made-up plot, but these are pretty much just a paper-thin veneer to find 'reasons' for our group of (anti)heros to race around, hide, fight, smash up lots of stuff, and generally just keep your eyes busy for 2 hours that you end up wishing you had back. Worst of all is that at the end, it's all excused with some superficial platitudes about 'family'.If all you want for the price of admission is to check your brains at the door and watch meaningless high-priced stunts with no logical connecting tissue, I guess this will fill the bill.

Fast Five picks up right where the previous film ends, with Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) and Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) helping to free Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) from the prison bus. Brian and Mia go on the run but need to fund their escape so they meet up with Vince (Matt Schulze) to perform a train heist of cars where they meet up with Dom. This explosive action scene ends with Brian and Dom riding off a cliff and being captured by a new villain Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) who wants to find the car Mia escaped in. Brian and Dom escape but they are even more wanted after the deaths of three DEA agents during the heist.On the trail of the criminals is Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) who recruits the only Bazilian office he can trust Elena (Elsa Pataky). Brian and Vince do not get along causing tension between the crew. Vince is caught stealing a secret chip that belongs to Reyes. Brian, Mia, and Dom discover that this chip has important information of Reyes just as his henchmen and Hobbs crew assault their hideout leading to a chase through the favela. Dom encounters Elena and saves her life from thugs. Check out more of this review and others at swilliky.com