I like a silly action flick just as much as the next guy. Heck, I even liked A-Team. Imagine my surprise when I look at Rotten Tomatoes and see that Fast Five is sitting at over 90% (it has since slipped to 79%--still pretty high)! What? Is that even possible? Forget the fact that films of this nature rarely chart that high on RT but couple that with the fact that this is a part 5 in a series and the entire notion is even more mind boggling. I went into Fast Five with an open mind, and walked away wondering what the hell people see in this flick! Don't get me wrong. It isn't a bad film. In fact, Justin Lin (who directed the last two installments) may have crafted the best entry in the series but consider this; Fast Five is over two hours long, and quite frankly, the mid section isn't all that exciting.

The first twenty minutes of Fast Five is quite the adrenalin pumper offering up a beautifully executed train sequence and doing much of it on the legit rather than resorting to a bunch of CG trickery. The next ninety minutes of the film trades in the underground dragster scenario of the original Fast and the Furious for a derivative (and pointlessly long) take on the heist film. In fact, a big chunk of Fast Five is all too reminiscent of Ocean's 11 minus the charm and cast camaraderie (with exception of Tyrese and Ludacris who manage to provide some funny banter).

Other moments in Fast Five reminded me of everything from a Bourne film to Clear and Present Danger to...gasp...Bad Boys II. Fast Five features characters from the entire franchise but its Paul Walker and Vin Diesel who headline the picture with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson joining the franchise as a dedicated cop hot on their heals. Walker all but sleep walks through this thing (much in the same way Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courteney Cox slept walk through Scream 4). Diesel is a nice enough guy, but he's a bit on the goofy side here and I never really bought the tough guy persona. The Rock is pretty much The Rock. Fast Five is slick to be sure and it does earn points for never taking itself seriously, but aside from the high octane opening, a hilariously over the top chase sequence featuring two cars and a massive bank vault, and the inevitable fist fight between the Rock and Diesel, Fast Five is kind of...boring.

Furthermore, there are two separate occasions when the film teases of car sequences that we don't even get to see. I see a lot of potential in Justin Lin (rumor has it he may be hooking up with Ahnold on a new Terminator film), but he would have been well advised to cut this movie by thirty minutes. At an hour and half, Fast Five might have felt more like the fun, brainless, action packed film everyone is proclaiming it to be.