Fast Five

I am not a fan of the Fast and Furious movie series. I think pimping up cars and drag racing is a joke. I also think glamorizing criminal activity is dumb, but I was actually surprised at how much better this movie was than I thought it would be.

This installment takes place in Rio. The main characters are trying to hide from the law and keep a low profile, but they get involved in a job that goes bad and 3 DEA agents are killed. As a result, an elite special forces squad led by Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) is sent down to Brazil to capture them. They attempt to steal 100 million dollars from a drug lord who caused their problem, but he also controls the corrupt police force. They have to deal with the local criminals and the U.S. agents who are both trying to kill them.

The stunts were amazing, but I thought it was funny how no civilians were killed or injured during over two hours of car chases, severe wrecks, and shoot outs. I was also surprised to see a bus full of prisoners roll ten times and become demolished, yet nobody was ejected or killed.  Despite being totally fake on so many levels, somehow there is a more realistic feel to this than many other action/heist movies.

Here are some questions I have after watching this movie:

*What the heck did The Rock do to get legs where his arms should be?
*Why are there are no ugly women in this movie? Homely women need some affirmative action if they are going to get any screen time in these movies.
*Is mission in-freaking-sanity a real word?
*Why do I suddenly have the urge to shave my head and wear a wife beater shirt?

I think the thing I liked the most about this was the action and stunts. It has been a long time since I saw a movie that was this action packed. If you are looking for an exciting movie with a lot of flash, then I recommend Fast Five. It's kind of like a violent Oceans Eleven. I give it 7.3 stars because it's better than what you might expect.