Movie review: Fast Five ***

Fast Five ***

Stars: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Dwayne Johnson
Director: Justin Lin
Rated: PG-13
Showing: Speciality Cinema week of Friday, May 13 - Daily at 2:30/6:15/9:15pm except Saturday 6:15/9:15pm and Sunday 1/4/7pm. For more information about film times, call 292-2135.
Runtime: 130 minutes
Action/crime/drama

Action movies are rarely intelligent — but that is half the fun. When done well, they are cleverly choreographed, visually and narratively exciting and visceral.

The Fast and Furious franchise falls into this category, hence its global success.

The cars, crime and cool crooks saga boasts great action sequences and this fifth installment lives up to its predecessors.

It shuns the reliance on fancy CGI used by the likes of Tron Legacy and Battle LA in favour of massive Michael Bay-style set-pieces.

Familiar faces from the first four movies return, including stars Vin Diesel and Paul Walker as career crook Dominic Toretto and former cop Brian O’Connor.

There is little acting skill and some dumb dialogue but they are good at being tough guys and have plenty of charisma.

Since Brian helped break Dom out of custody, they have fled to Rio de Janeiro and find themselves caught between a drug kingpin and a top federal agent (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson), who is determined to bring them to justice. They must pull one last job to win freedom, so assemble an elite team of racers while trying to dodge their enemies.