Fast Five

12, 2011, Directed by Justin Lin
Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Tyrese Gibson

Picking up immediately where Fast and Furious left off, it’s clear that Justin Lin has evolved this franchise into becoming two things: one - an out-and-out action romp that respects its characters as much as cars, and two - something to get excited about. With Paul Walker’s O’Conner and Jordana Brewster’s Mia hot on the pursuit of the prison van escorting Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto to lock-up, they free him and head to Rio de Janeiro as fugitives where they set to planning a heist to steal $100,000 from a corrupt businessman. An obstacle arrives in the form of a dropped Rock as Dwayne Johnson stars as Luke Hobbs, a boulder of a US agent who has his sights squarely aimed at Toretto. Spewing laugh-out-loud lines with tongue-in-cheek tact, Johnson is an insanely-welcome addition to the ever-growing cast, which sees the return of series favourite’s Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges), Han (Sung Kang) and Giselle (Gal Gadot), all whom lend a hand to earn a cut of the money.

Perhaps overlong, this can be forgiven for providing audiences with a scene that could vie for the series' best; a car-chase on a speeding highway  which features a car dragging along a destructive bank vault behind it, knocking out buildings and pursuing cars in the process. The decision to evolve the street-racing to high-octane car chase sequences amidst a heist is one that pays off.

And a post-credit sequence involving a few unexpected familiar faces fixes the wheels in motion for what's to come. A fifth film in a series has no right to be this fun.

3.5/5