Fast Five

Director: Justin Lin
Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson
Time Out rating:
Japanese title: Wild Speed: Mega Max

It’s ten years since Vin Diesel and Paul Walker got behind the wheel of this franchise and they’re probably as surprised as anyone it’s still going. After busting out of a prison van, global car thief Dom (Diesel) hatches a plan to rob Rio’s biggest drug baron of his cash. Meanwhile his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) has a little boy/girl racer on the way thanks to cop-turned-robber Brian (Walker). To get the stash, they’re going to need fast cars and a team of experts: cue characters from past films, introduced in the style of Ocean’s Eleven.

The heist plot is lightly enjoyable, even if the finer details get muddied in a puff of exhaust smoke. There’s an amusing love-hate bromance between Diesel and newcomer to the series Dwayne Johnson, who sports a beard in case slower viewers should get confused. Overlong but slick, this still gets away with simplistic dialogue and characters, perhaps because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. And judging by the post-credits scene, there’s yet more fast and furious tomfoolery to come.

Fast Five opens nationwide on October 1