Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 130 minutes
Release Date: April 29th, 2011 (USA)
Studio: Universal Pictures
Director(s): Justin Lin
Writer(s): Chris Morgan / Gary Scott Thompson (characters)

Running ain’t freedom. You should know that.

If your city’s government finds a request to hold the twenty-year anniversary for The Fast and the Furious reunion, ask Rio de Janeiro how the tenth turned out. A rogue’s gallery of almost every cast member to get behind a car in the series, Fast Five lays it all on the line by destroying miles of road, a bank lobby, and an entire fleet of cars with policía lettered on the side … all while over-using the Statue of Christ the Redeemer for every attempt at an expository shot. Let’s just say the bill will be high, Monaco. You should politely refuse.

Yes, even if Vin Diesel knocks on your door for a face-to-face. Heck, for all we know, he may just walk away from the franchise a second time—once again thinking his meathead performance will write his ticket to fame, fortune, and financing for his Hannibal passion project. Even so, while your city may not fare well, the public will lend their signatures to a petition for the opportunity. Especially if the script resembles a bona fide story like this entry. The acting might still be sub par (along with the dialogue), but damn is it entertaining.

Call this thing Ocean’s from da Street if you must because, while I haven’t seen the middle three installments, this baby has a lot more weight to it than just fast cars, hot girls, and abnormally muscled men. Justin Lin (director) and Chris Morgan (writer) have outdone themselves by fashioning an intriguing heist flick onto the existing character base while making it work within the campy world possessed of laughable physics an insane number of people lap up with pleasure every time they hear a VROOOM shooting left to right through the theater’s surround sound.

It starts with Dominic Toretto (Diesel), Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster), and Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker)—the latter two just breaking the former out of the clink—on the run and looking to hit the shores of a country without extradition. Thanks to old buddy Vince (Matt Schulze), the crew decides to work an ‘easy’ job that wraps them up into a massive underworld led by Rio’s crime boss Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida). With Reyes’ right hand man Zizi (Michael Irby) framing the boys, American Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) arrives with his clean-up crew to scoop them up and prosecute them to the fullest.

And, by prosecute, I do mean put a bullet in their heads. Hobbs is not messing around and he never misses. Using whatever force necessary, he and his team look to light Rio up and collect these men who have landed on his desk. Needing some form of local law enforcement, he recruits Elena (Elsa Pataky) to help—a rookie whose husband died on the job, a woman with nothing to lose, and the only policía who cannot be bought. Johnson plays the badass well, especially when he allows himself a touch of humanity rather than the robotic machinations of his previous outing, Faster.

This is a formidable foe for Diesel and company—a guy who is actually bigger than the antihero at the center of it all. Don’t therefore be surprised to find it all leading up to an invigorating sequence of man-to-man fisticuffs with both leaping into each other for extra force a la Street Fighter. Then there’s the cat and mouse chase between Toretto’s team and Reyes’s money for counter balance. One with inevitable ends to keep the Fast and Furious ethos of existing in the gray area of the law intact.

Since this new dual format has characters running around the rooftops of Rio instead of driving high-octane engines, the appeal the previous entries had may be gone for diehard fans. This change is a step-up in my opinion, though, as I couldn’t care less about the automobiles gracing the screen—mostly stationary for product placement rather than maneuvering the roads since only one drag race is shown while the rest are surprisingly cut to advance the plot.

Unfortunately, I think that’s why most people watch this franchise. They want to feel the steel as it contorts towards the finish line. They want to see sexy women and, besides Pataky in a tank top, these warm-blooded males will be disappointed in that arena too … as will the ladies since Vin and company somehow manage to keep their shirts on for the duration. But people love the Ocean’s movies too, so I don’t see Fast Five failing at the box office since it creates a nice hybrid of both. It’s tricky ensemble thievery with a high body count.

While the drag strips are few, a climatic chase full of speed and destruction will make-up for it and cause you to wonder when exactly society decided it was worth 100 million dollars to decimate property and depict police officers simply looking at the mess knowing taxpayers will foot the bill. It’s a scene that helps keep Diesel and Walker from talking, though—their stern, constipated looks of determination being their strong suit—while the rest get to fly free and spice in some comic relief.

At the very least you’ll be entertained by the comedy. From Sung Kang’s Han and Gal Gadot’s Gisele cultivating a sexual spark to Tego Calderon’s Leo and Don Omar’s Santos—both performers on the soundtrack from Tokyo Drift before becoming actors in the series—engaging in Spanglished arguments to Tyrese Gibson’s Roman and Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges’s Tej owning every frame they’re in, the insane 130-minute runtime actually flies by with few lulls. Who knew the series could actually trend upwards to a film I wouldn’t mind watching again?

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(L to R) Brian O’Conner (PAUL WALKER), Mia Toretto (JORDANA BREWSTER) and Dom Toretto (VIN DIESEL) in a reunion of returning all-stars from every chapter of the explosive franchise built on speed—FAST FIVE. Photo Credit: Jaimie Trueblood Copyright: © 2011 Universal Studios. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.