Fast Five

Fast cars, frenzied action, forlorn characters, and frenetic frictions make up Fast Five's feverish collisions as the duration of its franchise is significantly distended.

Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his team of vehicular visionaries are on the run from both the law and a Brazilian gangster as familial responsibilities reconstitute their pursuit of happiness.

As if they're beyond good and evil.

They're not trying to rob from the rich and give to the poor, they're trying to heist around a hundred million and make a break for the sunset. They have the tools and possess the know-how; it's now just a matter of exceptional skill and impeccable timing.

Not to mention good buds and a wrought iron reputation.

The film's intense and fun to watch. There are many logical miscues but it is deeper than it appears on the surface.

For instance, Brazilian gangster Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) thinks he can control communities by providing them with lavish gifts. He provides the finances for projects and expects a high degree of subservience in return. After he places an enormous bounty on Dominic's head, you'd expect there to be at least one scene during which he encounters an agile opportunist, but this doesn't happen. Since the population is so used to Reyes's duplicity, no one trusts him unless they have to, and therefore no one seeks to betray Toretto.

Hence, at least some of the thought put into Fast Five wasn't geared towards stunts and getaways, and if you can get over the stock characters and sensational situations it's worth checking out. These films aren't really about employing more advanced rhetorical devices, their more advanced rhetorical devices are built into the ways in which they present more elaborate sensational situations, 'out-witting' what's taken place in their predecessors, and using a gangster's safe guarded by the police to smash up both the police and the gangster, well, that was a good idea.

But don't take my word for it.