The year was 2001 and two car-racing movies were headed to theatres. The first was Driven, a film about international playboy F1 drivers starring bona fide movie superstar Sylvester Stallone. The other was The Fast and the Furious, starring a still fresh-faced Vin Diesel and the pretty-boy quarterback who lost his starting job to Dawson in Varsity Blues. Between Stallone and Diesel, a betting man would have put his money on Driven to be a hit.

But we all know what went down. Against all odds, The Fast and the Furious became the ridiculous movie that could, and spawned a $1-billion franchise with four sequels. Driven? It forgot to change its oil and stalled before the finish line. I’m not much of a car guy, but I’m pretty sure that racing reference makes sense.

So the time has come to consider the implications of a fifth Fast and Furious movie. Not many franchises make it that far. In the day and age of reboots and prequels, it’s a minor-miracle that Fast Five is bringing back its two leads along with every memorable character who’s ever appeared in their bizarre homoerotic car world to help them continue their mission to, I assume, steal every car ever.

If you think about all the major studio franchises throughout the blockbuster era — which I’m defining as post-Jaws — it’s extremely rare for a non-horror series to reach No. 5. By the time a third or a fourth film in a franchise hits, it seems like the writers mostly run out of ideas. Spider-Man only got to No. 3 before being recast and rebooted. The original Batman only made it to one sequel, and there’s not many people begging for a fifth time around the old block with John McClane or Indiana Jones. Even The Godfather ran out of steam in the third movie.

But for some reason it feels completely reasonable for there to be a fifth Fast and Furious movie. Somehow, these movies have continued to pack theatres and together have become the most sustainable blockbuster franchise of our time. Future generations will look back and say, “Wow, people at the turn of the millennium loved watching Paul Walker lust after Vin Diesel while revving the engine of a shiny, stolen muscle car.” Also, they will assume the Japanese were experts at Tokyo drifting, a move that is totally implausible and awesome in equal measure.

In a weird sort of way, the fifth movie brings the franchise back to where it began, overshadowing Sylvester Stallone. In 2001 it was Driven, this year it’s The Expendables. That movie’s stunt casting promised to bring together the world’s biggest action stars for an old-school non-stop thrill ride. But for some reason neither Diesel or the Rock were invited to come along. That’s not a knock on the cast that Stallone did manage to assemble, but the absence of those two certainly detracts from that movie’s badass quotient.

The Rock and Diesel were the only two actors to market themselves as action stars in the early 2000s. Yes, Jason Statham emerged as just as viable an action hero, but he sort of fell into the role. Both Diesel and the Rock were hard-asses with hearts of gold from the very start. So pitting them against each other in Fast Five is a coup, and it makes the tepid Willis-Schwarzenegger-Stallone trash-talking session in The Expendables look even more boring in comparison.

On a completely, and I mean completely, different note is this weekend’s other wide release, Prom. No badasses here, just little Julie Taylor from Friday Night Lights. Actually scratch that, Julie was a total badass on that show. Except for the time when she slept with her university professor, then crashed her car into a pile of rocks so she wouldn’t have to leave Dillon and go face the judgment of her peers. That was a weak move Julie Taylor, weak move. This is the first of the movies starring cast members from that beloved show, and it’ll be followed by the Kyle Chandler-starring Super 8 later this summer and next year’s Battleship starring Tim Riggins himself, Taylor Kitsch. Each of these actors proved their chops on the show and would be solid anchors for any film. So if you like movies about proms, go see Prom.

One person who definitely wasn’t a badass was Little Red Riding Hood. Girl got her grandma eaten by a damn wolf. But apparently she’s a hero in Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil, which also opens this weekend. She has to save Hansel and Gretel because Hansel and Gretel are gluttonous fools.