Fast Five (2011)

A new film, a new venture and a whole new never ending stream of super modded cars for Toretto and his crew. No need for explanations on how they get these cars, they just get them, deal with it people.

Fairly disappointing, overly long and actually slightly dull new chapter in this chav/hip hop racer franchise. Amazing it has lasted this long really but the films have been a roller coaster of quality for me. First film was a boy racer flick complete with dumb neon underside lighting but fairly original and fun. Second film was a bit of a rehash with colourful new street racer characters and dripping in bling...was pretty awful.

Third film was a straight to the shops deal which many didn't like BUT is actually by far the most superior of the franchise due to the excellent and very realistic drift racing making it a proper street racing film. The fourth film regroups the original cast and has a drug running plot. This means the street racing has been pushed to one side in favour of generic action man hokum.

Now we have number five which seems to have ditched a lot of the street racing element and is more of an out n out heist flick. Along the lines of 'The Italian Job' remake with flashy over the top car/people stunts, the usual regular cliched team of criminals and the usual regular cliched breaking in techniques that we've seen so often now we could all break into banks ourselves.

Still impressed with the cast continuity though I gotta admit. Everyone is back again including Bridges from number 2 and Schulze all the way from the very first film. It is also of course the first introduction of Dwayne Johnson into the franchise and he fits in perfectly in all honesty. He stands around barking orders with his chest puffed out, arms glistening and holding large weapons.

There is a hint of street racing but that's all we get...a hint, we don't see the guys winning their fast cars. I think the stupidest scene in the film is where they race police cars together, they just waltz in and steal four cruisers, apparently, then try to make us believe that these regular police cruisers are fast souped up motors!! and manual!...they do realise the US mainly uses auto? (of course they used fast cars in reality as stand in's).

Highlight is the fight between Diesel and Johnson, two big slapheads grunting n sweating over each other which is pretty decent but after that it gets silly again as both Johnson and his female partner decide to join Toretto and his criminals in the heist! The final big chase/escape sequence is impressive with tonnes of carnage and wreckage, your basic common destruction porn fix. It does admittedly command your attention even if its somewhat overblown and ridiculous, I wonder how many innocent people Toretto manages to kill inadvertently during the finale.

If you want street racing you won't find it here, this is a bank heist flick which isn't too original. Reasonable mindless fun but nothing new, seen this kind of thing so many times and this offers nothing new. This film marks the end for the street racing aspect in this franchise and enters the saturated action heist genre.

On a final note I might add...there's no way Toretto's Dodge Charger could ever compete against Brian's Skyline GTR at the end. How many times are they gonna try and show this to us??

5/10