Fast Five | Film review

DIESEL ENGINE Vin's got power under the hood.

Photo Credit: Jaimie Trueblood

The Fast and the Furious movies haven’t exactly gotten better as they’ve gone along—although Tokyo Drift director Lin, taking his third turn behind the franchise’s wheel, is at least a competent hack. (That’s more than you can say for Rob Cohen or John Singleton.) But credit progressive installments for whittling the series down to its core: all horsepower, no chrome. Fast Five transports the action to Brazil, with the antagonists—an all-powerful drug lord (de Almeida) and a hulking FBI agent (Johnson)—reduced to piddling details as Diesel, Walker and other past Fast players burn rubber, get involved in high-speed pursuits, etc. As the guy in Barton Fink put it: “Whaddaya need, a road map?”