Film 5: Fast and the Furious 5

Warning the following could contain spoilers!

Film: Fast and the Furious 5 (Fast Five, Fast & Furious 5 Rio Heist)
April 2011

Director: Justin Lin

Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson.

Plot: While transporting Dom Toretto (Diesel) to prison the convoy is attacked and Toretto is freed by his sister Mia (Brewster) and her boyfriend Brian O'Conner (Walker), after the breakout the 3 head for Rio, (presumable to reassess the situation or something). Teaming up with fellow car thieves to do a big job the team take cars from a train that from the others reaction seem to have more to them than meets the eye (Transformers! not really). Discovering that the on board computer in one of the cars contains a chip to the location of large amounts of cash, the team decide to steal the money so they can start a new life.

After deaths on the Train Government agent Luke Hobbs (Johnsen) and his team are sent in to capture Toretto and his accomplices.

Toretto decides with the scale of this job a team is needed recruiting from his world wide connections he soon has his team and prepares to launch the heist, but is interrupted by Hobbs who captures the group and prepares to have them extradited to the US. While moving Toretto to the airport Hobbs' team is attacked by the drug smugglers who Toretto had planned on stealing the money from, leaving only Toretto's team and Hobbs alive, with the officer wanting revenge for his men. The gang break into the police station, where the money is being held, and drag the safe through the streets of Rio, when it seems hopeless Dom tells O'Conner to run while he takes out the remaining forces chasing them. He takes out the rest of the drug smugglers and police but before driving off is confronted by Hobbs who tells him to leave the safe, Toretto agrees and takes his head start Hobbs has offered him.

Looking in the safe Hobbs finds it empty where it is reviled that it was swapped earlier by the gang. Hobbs laughs while we join Toretto joining up with O'Conner and a pregnant Mia, challenging each other to a race.

Thoughts going in: I had seen Fast and the Furious and only parts of the others so I went in knowing only that it seemed a generic action movie with a lot about cars that I didn't really think I would care about. But the main promotion for the movie had Diesel vs Johnson which was an encounter I had to see.

Review: This was just another F&F film, full of action, unnecessary car races, car thieves inexplicable being well trained in use of guns, computers and any form of vehicle that's not a car. It was fun to watch and a funny moment in the cinema when it did the traditional shot of Rio when it goes passed Christo Redentor and a woman screamed "Oh, it's Rio!" despite the movie having 'Rio Heist' in its title.

Score: C+

Says its title: No, at no point does anyone even say Fast and Furious.

Worth the DVD?: No, unless these are your sort of movies it does not stick out from any of the rest of the series, lets hope Fast 6 is more standout.