Talk about a serious case of road rage. And we absolutely love it. This one more than makes up for the three lackluster sequels to The Fast and the Furious. The street racing with which the first in the franchise made its name makes way for supercar acrobatic battles, one car trying to obliterate the other. Without much use of firepower. Petrolheads from the previous four installments have matured, they now just want to stop being on the run all the time, settle down, start a family... basically get on with life.
To do that, Dom (Vin Diesel), Mia (Jordana Brewster) and O’Connor (Paul Walker) first hightail it to Rio de Janeiro into hiding, but not without complications. As if having master huntsman federal agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne ”The Rock” Johnson) on their tail isn’t enough, they decide to pull a heist on Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), the ruthless mob boss who runs Rio. Now they’ve got two dangerous men on their asses. All the action that ensues from this is brilliantly shot from start to finish.
The crack team the trio engage for the heist sees a reunion of some characters from earlier films in the series, and together they make a resoundingly amusing bunch. Dwayne Johnson, though, outshines the entire cast with his portrayal of the guided missile of a cop with an honorable sense of duty to his team and a dead-pan sense of humor. And you have to see the WWE-esque smackdown between him and Vin Diesel. Good action flicks send shots of adrenaline through you; this one goes one better, doing just that while nailing you to your seat with its power to mesmerize, with a quality script that calls to mind the high points of Oceans 11. Make sure you stay till the end of the credits.