- 8
...by most measures the best of the bunch (of movies), combining fresh casting choices, interesting Rio locales and literally smashing bookended action sequences.
—Robert Koehler Variety
- 8
Like a proper action sequel, it's bigger, louder, and sillier than its predecessors, but it's more streamlined, too, smartly dumping the tired underground racing angle in favor of a crisp, hugely satisfying Ocean's Eleven-style heist movie.
—Scott Tobias Onion AV Club
- 8
Fast Five is high-octane trash, but you will go ''Ohhhhhh!''
—Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly
- 7
There may be more brains in your bucket of popcorn, but this gleefully silly smash-'em-up heist film is sturdy enough to restore much of the fan goodwill torched by the horror movie that was the Diesel-free The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
—Deborah Young Hollywood Reporter
- 7
As adolescent male power fantasies go, Fast Five has an undeniable trashy charm.
—Colin Covert Chicago Tribune
- 7
Purists may be disappointed, in fact, to find that most of the street-racing, that marginally interesting activity upon which the entire series is based, takes place offscreen; I was delighted. Instead, Fast Five gives us two or three of the most satisfying big-budget action sequences in ages, combining heist elements and physical stunts with ridiculous, glorious implausibility....
—Jesse Hassenger filmcritic.com
- 7
As mind-numbing urban-destruction movies go, it's carefully crafted and gorgeously photographed, with plenty of pumped-up bodies, juiced-up cars, Rio de Janeiro scenery and chase sequences of byzantine complexity and unremitting intensity.
—Andrew O'Hehir Salon
- 7
What it all comes down to is a skillfully assembled 130 minutes at the movies, with actors capable of doing absurd things with straight faces, and action sequences that toy idly with the laws of physics.
—Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times
- 7
...an absurdly entertaining, high-octane fifth go-round. Who knew the fourth sequel to The Fast and the Furious would not only refuel a flagging franchise, but lead the pack as the best of the bunch?
—Claudia Puig USA Today
- 6
I liked Fast Five. I watched the cars smashing in IMAX and smiled. And for over two hours, I couldn't wipe the big stupid grin off my face.
—Peter Travers Rolling Stone
- 6
...the sheer audacity of Fast Five is kind of breathtaking in a metal-twisting, death-defying, mission-implausible, B-movie-on-steroids kind of way.
—Betsy Sharkey Los Angeles Times
- 5
Manufactured for extreme wows and not a single thought, is an exemplar of industrial moviemaking calculation, one that combines demographic savvy with revving engines, grunting men, crashing cars and promenading female bumpers that are made for looking but not touching, partly to maintain the child-friendly PG-13 rating, partly to keep the men and action moving relentlessly forward.
—Manohla Dargis New York Times
- 5
Shameless indulgence in the franchise's clichés...
—Karina Longworth Village Voice
- 4
...simply a wannabe-Michael Bay effort, replete with stock one-liners, military fetishism, and its protagonists taking up firearms...
—Nick Schager Slant Magazine
- 4
...until the finale, Fast Five has no car chases to speak of. Instead of a vroomer, we get a knucklehead Ocean's 11.
—Kyle Smith New York Post
- 4
...ought to be called The Slow and the Spurious.
—L. Thompson E!