Fast Five

A slight cut above its immediate predecessor, Fast Five follows Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) as they assemble an all-star crew of criminals and set out to steal millions of dollars from a ruthless drug lord (Joaquim de Almeida’s Hernan Reyes) – with the gang’s efforts consistently thwarted by a tenacious federal agent named Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson). There’s little doubt that Fast Five, for the most part, comes off as an entertaining yet hopelessly bloated actioner, with the movie’s 130 minute running time (!) often threatening to render its positive attributes moot. It’s consequently not surprising to note that the film is rife with scenes and subplots of an overlong and downright needless variety, as director Justin Lin, working from Chris Morgan’s screenplay, devotes far too much screen time to the crew’s preparations for the final heist – which effectively ensures that the movie possesses as flabby and uneven a midsection as one could possibly have imagined (ie it often feels as though Lin and company are merely spinning their wheels in the buildup to the climax). It’s just as clear that Fast Five benefits substantially from the inclusion of several undeniably entertaining sequences and performances, with the former represented most keenly in a thrilling foot chase through the streets of Rio de Janeiro. (In terms of the acting, Diesel, Walker, and rest of the protagonists are fine – yet it’s Johnson’s magnetic, almost absurdly macho turn as uber-agent Luke Hobbs that stands as the most effortlessly engaging element within the proceedings.) The end result is a frustratingly protracted piece of work that should have been so much better, with Lin’s pervasively excessive sensibilities diminishing the film’s overall impact. (It’s worth noting that even the climactic action sequence, which is admittedly quite exciting in its early stages, manages to overstay its welcome.)

**1/2 out of ****