For 20 minutes or so, Fast Five is everything you could want from a Fast and the Furious movie. We’re treated to two gonzo stunts (one involving a rolling prison bus, the other a ludicrous, vehicular cliff dive), both of which are anchored by the male soldering of racing thief Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and rogue cop Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker). It’s too bad that we get diminishing returns from there. This eventually devolves into a so-so heist film, with Dom and Brian getting way too much of the gang back together. On top of that is the new face of Dwayne Johnson, appearing as a take-no-prisoners federal agent. The artist formerly known as The Rock can flex with the best of them, but he lacks the sincerity that Walker and Diesel specialize in. He has a sense of irony that can’t be squashed. Thank goodness, then, for another outrageous stunt in the climax, involving a room-sized vault being dragged down Rio de Janeiro’s streets behind two race cars, taking out vehicles, bus stops and even a bank in the process. It’s here that the Fast and Furious franchise achieves the sort of zen chaos that defines the Die Hard films, its sister series in many ways. If you’re going to do this dumb stuff, do it right.
