Fast & Furious 5

Review by Reardon Jones

The boys are back in town as Vin Diesel and Paul Walker take to the throttle for the fifth installment of the Fast & the Furious franchise.

Picking up immediately after Fast and Furious (4) Toretto and O’Conner  find themselves on the same side of the law for a change as they both rapidly climb the F.B.I's most wanted list, forcing a move to Rio.

Seems easy enough?

Well when you have the F.B.I’s top agent hunting you things could be tricky, especially when trying to pull off the biggest heist Rio has ever seen.

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker deliver the kinds of performances one would expect from this pair - an occasionally funny, different take on the buddy cop routine... in this case buddy crooks. 

As the two work towards freedom from the law they, of course, run into a few olds friends along the way. Diesel's run in with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson reminds you of just how huge these guys are.

Johnson plays Agent Hobbs, tasked with bringing in Toretto and Walker using an elite team of agents and some of the cheesiest action dialogue heard since the 1980s.

Dwayne Johnson’s performance at times made me laugh and occasionally cringe, but I personally love the action movies of the 80s and 90s, so you've got to have a soft spot for the ridiculous action sequences in this movie.

Fast cars, crazy stunts and gorgeous girls haves always been a winning formula for this franchise and this installment has it all in spades.

In what felt like a mix of Oceans 11 and Gone in 60 Seconds Toretto brings a crew together to take on the criminal Boss of Rio, Reyes, played by Joaquim de Almeida. A lot of pretty impressive car stunts and gun fights ensue, with one of the best car chase I have seen in a long time.

Familiar faces from all installments join Toretto, O’Conner and Mia (Jordana Brewster) for the big heist. Tej (Ludacris),  Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Vince (Matt Schulze), Han (Sung Kang), Leo (Tego Calderon), Santos (Don Omar) Gisele (Gal Gadot) are all back bringing with their specialties that will help pull off the enormous job.

Having seen the other installments it was kind of a treat to have the main stars from all the series brought together for the one film. Considering that The Fast and Furious was released in 2001 it was a good effort to bring the cast together.

The best part about this movie - I guess the entire series - is that it doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is, an action movie based around fast cars, tough guys and some pretty unbelievable scenarios.

That’s why you can't really dislike Fast & the Furious 5. It delivered and I can probably wager it won't be the last either.   

3 out of 5

Fast & Furious 5
Australian release: 14 th April, 2011 (Limited Release)
Official Site: Fast & Furious 5
Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson
Director: Justin Lin