Review - Fast & Furious 6

Fast & Furious 6 (2013), PG-13, 130 minutes - It amazes me that a little film from 2001 about street racing has spawned a franchise that isn't only still going, but arguably gets stronger with each and every entry.  Director Justin Lin took over with 2006's The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and now, with Fast & Furious 6, he continues to develop the world of Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) as well as building toward future franchise installments.

Fast & Furious 6 is just what the trailer makes it look like: a summer time popcorn flick with tons of action and one liners between characters.  The trailer also does a pretty good job of laying out the plot for Fast 6 - Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), who spent most of Fast 5 pursuing Toretto and his crew enlists their help in trying to apprehend an even bigger fish: an international criminal named Shaw (Luke Evans).  Toretto only agrees because it provides the chance to determine whether or not Letty (Michelle Rodriguez, last seen in 2009's Fast & Furious) is alive as photos in Hobbs' possession make it appear.  The general story line is pretty basic, but that is more than made up for by gigantic action sequences and car chases.  One of which includes a tank and another that features a carrier jet.

The major players from the previous films all play their parts in this installment.  Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson are clearly the faces that drive the franchise these days but Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, and Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges join in on the fun along with Fast newcomer Gina Carano.

Each of the last two or three entries in the franchise have had an action sequence that is so over the top it just makes me shake my head.  So over the top that it is hard to suspend disbelief in the name of a fun summer action flick.  Fast & Furious 6 was no different.  But when the film is all said and done I can't hold that scene in particular against it.  It is unapologetically fun.  Characters are colorful, action is gigantic, well shot, and Justin Lin simultaneously ties up story points from previous films while laying groundwork for films to come (more in the spoiler section below).

Fast & Furious 6 works well as both a sequel and as a stand alone action flick.  If you've seen the previous entries, you will no doubt get more out of this, but it does a fairly good job of providing you with what you need to know about the characters and their motivations.  If you're looking for a fun summer movie to check out, you cold do a lot worse than Fast & Furious 6.











****SPOILERS*****

- Despite the over the top scenes with the tank and the jet, the scene that I had the hardest time suspending disbelief on was when the tank was brought to a screeching halt, launching Letty into the air and Dom jumping out to catch her, their momentum carrying them across the abyss of the split highway and into the windshield of a wrecked vehicle.  No way they survive that with the seemingly non-existent injuries that they had.

- Kinda/sorta on the same note, how did all of these characters become James Bond-level action heroes?  I get that they are all amazing drivers, but when did they all become so good handling weapons or climbing on/in/around tumbling, wrecking vehicles.

- Fast 5 pitted Vin Diesel against Dwayne Johnson which was great to see.  This time around, they found someone even bigger than Dwayne Johnson to through into a couple of fight scenes (not sure of his name, but he was the muscle of Shaw's crew).

- The order in which the Fast & Furious film take place, as far as I can tell:
  1. The Fast and the Furious (2001)
  2. 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
  3. Fast & Furious (2009)
  4. Fast 5 (2011)
  5. Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
  6. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
- I really liked how they finally solidly tied Tokyo Drift into the chronology of the films as opposed to it just happening somewhere down the road.

- Jason Statham will be the antagonist in Fast & Furious 7 (due out in 2014)!  I like how they tied his introduction into events from Tokyo Drift.  

- The absolutely brutal throw down between Gina Carano and Michelle Rodriguez may be the most hardcore fight between women that I've seen in a film.


Comments

  1. Awesome movie... The stunts are superb.. The Rock with his trash talk and full-on action i jjust superb... Nice plot and an excellent ending with a peek into the next part.. Waiting anxiously for F-F-7

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    1. Agreed! Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my blog!

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