Film Recommendation of the Week...

Fast and Furious 5
Release date April 29, 2011.
Running time  2 hours 10 minutes.

"We do one last job, and then we disappear-forever."-Dominic Toretto

Mindless action films with bad scripts and even worse acting don't really have a place here on "Busting Chops", but this particular rendition of the genre is an exception. I've always felt Vin Diesel sold himself short as an actor, displaying the mentality that being a "star" takes precedence over quality roles. But it's made him rich and famous, which is more than enough for people who don't give a shit about acting as a craft. Fair enough-how many people would sell their soul to have his life?

Dominic Toretto (played with sublime charisma by Diesel himself) is being chased by Special Agent Luke Hobbs (played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), who is looking to bring Toretto back to prison after his sister and her boyfriend bust him out on his way to Lompoc Penitentiary. The gang hits Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to pull off the ultimate heist of a lifetime-to rob the biggest drug dealer in the city, who has become so paranoid he's decided to hide his money in a state-of-the-art safe in a Rio police station. So Toretto puts together an international crew to pull the audacious caper off.

Um, not exactly the cat you want chasing you through the favelas of Rio, ay Vin?

This movie contains an all-star cast of mediocre actors, but I must say it's cool to see guys like homeboys Tego Calderon and Don Omar from Puerto Rico getting a chance to shine on the big screen. Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris are also part of the crew, and even though they didn't have many speaking parts were thoroughly enjoyable. Watching cats like this trying to act is much better than having a bunch of no-name jackasses trying to make Shakespeare out of what is essentially a Keystone Cops mash-up.

The details aren't important. This is an action flick , and action is what you get, right up the ass. Of all the "Fast and Furious" flicks, this is by far the best one by a mile. If this film doesn't make you feel like robbing a bank and taking off with the loot after watching it, you were dead the whole time. The car chases are incredible and the atmosphere electric throughout the whole flick-not a dull moment ever. If you wanna have some fun and forget about that boring, miserable, pathetic, loser life of yours for a couple of hours, put down the crack pipe and check out this film-you won't regret it.

*Ah, I almost forgot-if all that isn't enough, at the end of the film we come to find out our little pal and former "Babe of the Week" Michelle Rodriguez is back. She was supposedly killed off in the previous film, but she is now in Europe robbing banks with her own crew. Her file comes across the desk of Special Agent Hobbs, making way for a future installment in the "Fast and Furious" franchise. GET PSYCHED!!!