Fast Five (2011)

Directed by: Justin Lin

Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson

In this follow-up to Fast and Furious, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), a career criminal, is on his way to federal prison.  His sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) and Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) hatch a plan to free Dom.  To avoid capture by federal authorities, the trio flees the country and ends up in Rio de Janeiro.  In order to finally be free of the law, they need to do one last job—a heist of $100 million in cash.  They put together a team of the best crooks to pull of this impossible mission.  With drug lord Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) and federal agent Luke Dobbs (Dwayne Johnson) hot on their trail, this elite team must pull out all the stops to pull off the heist and finally find freedom.

For a film with larger-than-life action sequences and unbelievable plot twists, Fast Five has a pretty awesome cast.  With the exception of Michelle Rodriguez whose character was killed in Fast & Furious, Justin Lin pulls together actors from all of the previous films including Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Matt Schulze, Elsa Pataky, and Sung Kang.  Add Dwayne Johnson into the mix, and you have a recipe for a good movie on your hands.  With this ensemble cast, Lin delivers loads of action and plenty of laughs—everything you need in a guilty pleasure like Fast Five.  The Fast and the Furious is a film series that began as a bunch of racing films.  This long-running series is now wowing audiences around the globe with big-budget action blockbusters like this one.