The Second Law of Thermodynamics states roughly that there is a universal tendency for all things to progress from order to disorder. The longer a particular system goes, the greater its tendency toward entropy and decline. If only that principle could explain Fast Five, the fifth entry in the wearying, middling Fast and Furious franchise—clear and away the best of all the films and an unmitigated blast from start to finish.

Ex-con Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and former cop Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) are reunited after a daring prison break forces them and Dom’s sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) to flee the U.S. in search of a country with a non-extradition treaty. But first, they have to pull off “one last job” (practically its own movie genre) in Rio de Janeiro—an audacious money grab that will require them to assemble the best team of criminal masterminds (Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Matt Schulze, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Tego Calderon and Don Omar). What they don’t know is that a hard-as-nails federal agent (Dwayne Johnson, who has never looked bigger) with a reputation for never missing his target (“This guy is Old Testament…”) is hot on their trail.

I confess I’ve never thought all that much of the Fast and Furious franchise, so I was completely caught off guard by how much I enjoyed this latest installment, a sort of heist film/car chase hybrid with some good fisticuffs thrown in for good measure. Oh the film is still dumb, derivative and offers nothing new to the beautiful girls/fast cars (or is it the other way around?) macho men genre, but it all works so well and with such testosterone-laden panache that we don’t care for a minute.

Director Justin Lin has a spooky, second sense for staging bombastic action sequences, even if he breaks every law in physics to make them work. He doles out a number of splendid action sequences throughout the early parts of the film (including one on loan from Clear and Present Danger), but it is not until the finale that we realize he’d been holding back all along. The conclusion of Fast Five is as exhilarating as it is preposterous, an adrenaline-fueled car chase that takes out half of downtown Rio and likely set Brazil’s automotive GDP back a few decades.

© Copyright 2011 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.

Directed by Justin Lin
Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Matt Schulze, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Tego Calderon, Don Omar
Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual content and language.
Running Time: 130 minutes