FAST FIVE – justin lin – 6.4 / 10

We seem to have reached a point with the big Hollywood summer blockbusters where as long as they aren’t failures on every level, critics will give them a pass.  The fanboy edict that a viewer 'turn off their brain' and just enjoy the film 'for what it is' seems to have won the day as that's become the de facto standard by which these sorts of movies seem to be judged.  Critics who give the same three-and-a-half-star rating to Fast Five as they give to something like The Social Network can't possibly be making the comparative judgment that the two movies are of similar quality.  And yet it's not uncommon for brain-dead films like this one to earn a similar (or higher) grade than films that by any reasonable standard are far more artistically successful.  The only conclusion that can be reached must be that the two films are not being judged on the same criteria.