The Silver Screen
'Fast Five:' The Best 'Furious' in 10 Years
It's Vin Diesel against 'The Rock' through explosive car chases in this latest installment of the 'Fast and the Furious' series.
The original The Fast and the Furious came out in 2001, and the new Fast Five, its fourth sequel, is very much in love with things that were huge that year: Vin Diesel, The Rock, Ludacris, super-sized Hummer vehicles, and a certain other movie that arrived in 2001. Fast Five is indeed a nostalgia exercise, but a surprisingly effective one. Sure, the plot, dialogue and acting are as silly as usual. But buoyed by a sparkling Rio setting and an awesomely staged third-act action setpiece, Fast Five is the series' best outing since the original. The Furious franchise, built on fast cars and the outlaws who drive (and sometimes steal) them, has taken a strange route in its decade. A surprise smash in 2001, it launched the careers of Vin Diesel …
