Film review: Fast Five

Cast: Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Jordana Brewster, Dwayne Johnson
Director: Justin Lin
Rating: PG13

Somewhere along the curving road that is the Fast and the Furious film franchise, the film-makers behind this adrenaline-drenched saga began to have fewer scenes of the protagonists actually behind the wheel.

Racing for pinks, in which the winner takes ownership of both cars, was replaced with an ever increasing barrage of Brian O'Conner (Walker) and Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) riding atop, astride, and leaping from all manner of vehicles. Witness the opening action sequence in the new film; we're less than a minute in when an audacious prison break sees O'Conner and girlfriend Mia Toretto (Brewster) rev up their highly modified, matching rides and break brother Dom out of a prison transfer van. I'll let you imagine the ramming, leaping, and athleticism that follows, but with Justin Lin returning to direct his third instalment in the series, you can expect to see Dom and Brian soar through the air several times more before the film is out, suggesting a potential re-title: Fast, Furious, and Flying Five.

Jailbreak aside, Fast Five is no Great Escape, it's not even Bullitt, the Steve McQueen cop flick that raised the car chase standard to new heights in 1968. Then again, Fast Five is Bullitt in some way, as the classic film is surely part of Fast Five's DNA, but amplified to today's levels of stunt and CGI saturation. Oh, and the Fast Five producers have upped the action ante, bringing in Dwayne "no longer The Rock" Johnson to play federal agent Hobbs, thus ensuring that Johnson won't have a competing action flick out the same weekend since he's sort of Hollywood's other

Vin Diesel… or maybe it's vice versa? Much like Diesel's acting, this film simply is what it is; a crash 'em up action movie targeted at adolescent males, that grown-ups might like too.