Fast Five

10 years and 5 movies in, you've probably already decided whether or not you're down with the Fast & Furious franchise. To be fair, the series has been all over the map in terms of so bad its good, so bad its bad and so awesome I can't take it anymore. Personally, I could watch these movies all day every day and never get enough.

Fast Five starts mere moments after Fast & Furious left us with Paul Walker and Jordana Brewster breaking out Vin from a prison bus with a spectacularly ridiculous and practical stunt piece. From there the movie barely slows down as Vin and Paul gather some familiar faces to do one last job before giving up life on the run for good.

As I said, this series has had its ups and downs, with its lowest point arguably being 2 Fast 2 Furious, though I personally can enjoy its levels of sheer stupidity. I think the turning point of this franchise though, is Tokyo Drift, directed by Justin Lin. It seems to be the first time where most everyone involved knew what kind of movie they were in, resulting in a genuinely fun time. Lin, who has been with the series ever since, deserves a lot of credit here. He's been able to hone and tinker with the tone with each go round, resulting in a near perfect action flick with Fast Five.

One of the best things Lin has done with this installment is his decision to go with practical stunts over CG as much as possible. All the previous films, while definitely including some solid stunt work, mostly relied on heavily CG'd car sequences, and the fact FF5 went completely in the oppostie direction really sets it apart from not only the rest of the franchise, but also from most big budget action films these days. The amount of wrecked cars in the final car chase alone is outdone only by The Blues Brothers from 1980.

I absolutely cannot talk about this film without mentioning Dwayne Johnson. He owns this movie. He knows exactly the kind of film this is and has a blast with his character, reveling in each and every cliched line he has. He and Vin also have an awesome brawl that is thankfully not over edited Bourne style, giving us a chance to actually see and feel punch after brutal punch.

Honestly, even if you hated every other Fast & Furious movie, I think you could find plenty to enjoy here. Yes, it's stupid, but it knows it, maybe even more so than the previous entries. The action in legitimately bigger and better than ever before, and while even being the longest FF film at 130 minutes, it goes by so fast you would have sworn it was only 90. Don't be a dick, go watch this movie and have a good time. I dare you.