"Fast Five" Kicks the Summer Into High Gear

I know Fast Five has been out for a while so most of you may have seen it already, but if you haven't and need some mindless entertainment that is aware of its ridiculousness then this is the movie to see.  For the 2 hour and 10 minute running time, at least an hour and 45 minutes of that is pure action.  From the opening sequence of a bus flipping over a dozen times, to the heist on a train, all the way to the final job, the intense fighting and racing hits hard.
The plot certainly isn't important, but it's a classic case of a heist going in a different direction due to some people being bad and untrustworthy.  After Toretto and O'Conner, played by the franchise heros Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, along with their team are accused of killing three federal agents, they are not only hunted by the head honcho in Rio whose men were planning on betraying them, but also a new addition to the series, Dwayne Johnson.  He sports a goatee in order to differentiate himself from his equally jacked costar Diesel (which comes in handy during a completely unnecessary but extremely amusing fist fight).  Johnson's cheesy but hilarious lines are worth the ticket price alone even with the never before seen type of special effects scenes.
The whole gang comes together for the final job and if you are wondering how Diesel and Walker somehow managed to obtain a career in acting, Tyrese Gibson among others prove that things could be worse.  This isn't too upsetting, however, since it simply doesn't matter what anyone has to say.  It's all about what they do.  Sure every single thing they succeed in pulling off is utterly absurd, including two average sized cars pulling a safe weighing ten tons out of a wall and across streets and bridges, but just remember to check your brain at the door.  I found myself in several WTF moments, getting a little annoyed at how stupid the people behind this movie think the audience can be, but what can you expect from a movie called Fast Five.  A ludicrous title and a joke to know that it's the fifth installment in a movie about racing cars.  Thankfully, this one is more Ocean's Eleven (without the A list stars) than NASCAR on the streets.
If five brain cell damaging movies weren't enough, stick around after the credits.  One star from the series who was left out has news about another.  I can't even imagine what they'll try to do next.  Oh wait, steal and race some cars.