By Nick Rosa

Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, and Jordana Brewster return to the screen in the most action packed ‘Fast and Furious’ yet.

With big crashes, sexy women and the addition of The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) as a brute federal agent, there’s plenty to bring in the mostly male audience which has helped shell out millions over the last decade since the first installment.

Director Justin Lin, who is back for his third time around (Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift and Fast and Furious 2009) opens the film up with exploding cars, a passenger bus flipping multiple times and a huge prison break. The film begins where the last film left off, with Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker) and girlfriend Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) using matching hot rods to bust Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) out of a prison transport van. Defying the laws of physics and straying away from the amount of street racing in the series, Lin puts a new edge to Fast and Furious.

All three are now on the FBI’s most wanted list and are on the run. They flee to Rio de Janeiro where you would expect beautiful beach scenes, souped up cars and flashy lights. But no, Lin gives us favelas, back-street garages and has gun-toting drug cartels chasing after the trio. And don’t forget the special group of agents that is lead by federal agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) who is after the three.

While people may be upset with the much less street racing and flashy toy cars contained in the film, Lin serves up new heights with never ending scenes with metal flying everywhere.

This was the most expensive installment so far and you can see the budget wasn’t used on acting lessons. There was one too many corny one-liners and quick switches in the plot of the film that you wouldn’t normally see, especially in a Fast and Furious film. But overall, Lin did a great job making it work.

After making enemies with the city’s reigning drug lord, Reyes, Dom and the others are constantly on the run and find themselves in a pickle that makes illegal street-racing look minuscule. With Agent Hobbs and his group of special agents and Reyes’ henchman close on behind them, Dom decides the only way they can get their freedom back is to buy it with $100 million of Reyes’ money.
Dom assembles more original cast members and franchise favorites including Tej (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges), Roman Pierce (Tyrese Gibson), Han (Sung Kang) and Gisele (Gal Gadot) for “one last job.”

It’s a basic plot but has a clever Ocean’s 11 bank heist strategy thrown in that leads to a climax that will get your blood pumping through the unimaginable obstacles they have to tackle to buy their freedom.

This film is something that audience members probably have never seen before, with a giant steel bank vault careening through the streets of Rio strapped to muscle cars with steel cables, it’s something new to the Fast and Furious series.

The film had non-stop action throughout and delivered as a good Fast and Furious film. If you’re a fan of the series I recommend seeing it, even if it can be corny at sometimes, but the explosive action and original cast members does more than make up for that.

With the climax leading into a sixth installment, the series seems to not disappoint its fans.