Review: Fast & Furious 6
Law and Moreno dished out their most anticipated movies of the summer last week, but neither were like me in the fact that FAST & FURIOUS 6 (or FURIOUS 6, according to the opening credits) was at the top of my list. Move over superhero movies, peace out sci-fi extravaganzas, I like my cars fast and The Rock furious. And now that I’ve experienced FURIOUS 6, I can easily say that the FAST franchise is, by far, the best movie franchise going today. How is it possible that a series 6 movies deep continues to up the ante and do shit we haven’t seen before? Because they’re not afraid of switching things up when things get stale, or going back to what’s worked time and time again.
As if it really matters, here’s what FURIOUS 6 is about according to IMDb: Agent Luke Hobbs enlists Dominic Toretto and his team to bring down former Special Ops soldier Owen Shaw, leader of a unit specializing in vehicular warfare.
Where FAST FIVE took the franchise from the world of car racing and criminal activities to the excitement of pulling off a heist, FURIOUS 6 takes another switch to the formula, this time with a “men on a mission” angle. Where FAST FIVE all but took out the street racing element, FURIOUS 6 adds it back in a little bit, but keeps things mostly heavily action-orientated, and not just car chase sequences, but serious scenes of hand-to-hand combat, shoot-outs galore, exploding planes, and a fucking tank blowing shit up. Yes, a tank.
But just cause there’s lots of action and a tank blowing shit up, does it make it a good movie, or better yet, a good entry in the F&F franchise? From the montage opening credits sequence (surprisingly like the final end credits sequence to FAST FIVE), to the returning characters we haven’t seen in awhile (Letty’s back, baby!), FURIOUS 6 almost felt like an amped up version of FAST & FURIOUS, returning to their roots, yet still being a direct sequel to FAST FIVE, as Hobbs (The Rock) needs the team for one last mission… and the team needs Hobbs so they can finally return home. And in true F&F fashion, the themes of friendship, family, muscle cars vs. rice rockets, and home being where the heart is are running rampant throughout. It never lets you forget for a second that “family is forever” or that “you are the car you drive” and all the other hokey shit we’ve come to know and love over the years, mostly spewing out of Toretto’s (Vin Diesel) muscle-bound eloquent speeches.
The gang is back (except for Rico and Tego who weren’t on board this time around) and better than ever. I never thought I’d say this, but Tyrese steals most of the scenes he’s in. Where he was annoying as hell in FAST FIVE, he’s actually quite funny this time around. Ludacris does what he does best, and Han & Gisele are still working their romance thing. The new edition is MMA ass-kicker Gina Carano as The Rock’s military-savvy side-kick, a role she excelled in more than HAYWIRE ever could have dreamed. And boy does she kick all kinds of Michelle Rodriguez ass here.
But was it all bonerific? It’s not a flawless movie (it wouldn’t be a true F&F movie if it were perfect), and it’s not quite as good as FAST FIVE… it’s hard to pinpoint exactly, but much of the charm FAST FIVE had going for it was lost here. Maybe because we were expecting crap and got something better than we could have imagined when FAST FIVE came out and now the bar is high for FURIOUS 6? Maybe. I don’t know.
That said, I still had a blast, and much like FAST FIVE, the crazy amount of action sequences just gets crazier as the movie progresses to one big hefty motherfucker of a finale set piece that had my on the edge of my seat. Really fucking fun and awesome stuff here, but FURIOUS 6 never quite hit the level of brilliance that bled out of FAST FIVE. Should I be comparing FURIOUS 6 to FAST FIVE? I don’t know. Six movies deep, you can’t really take it as its own thing because all the characters have been built over a series of movies and not just this one, so yeah… comparing it is fair. And impossible not to do.
And while I’m complaining, the majority of all car-fueled action sequences take place at night… not to say that that’s necessarily a bad thing, but it’s dark to the point where it was hard to see everything that was going down all the time. A night chase here and there is cool, but more than half of them? I’d rather see all the crazy shit go down in glorious daylight. A small complaint, but it has to be said.
At the end of the day, I had a fantastic time with FURIOUS 6. Lots of great action, some really mind-blowing stunt work that I have never seen done before and overall a great entry in the F&F universe. I loved seeing the crew together again on the big screen driving fast, being furious, and having The Rock bursting out of his shirts and sweating up a storm (even in London, where it’s cold most of the time). The villain was great, the new additions were much appreciated, and there’s also a fan-fucking-tastic set up for FAST 7… one that will blow most people’s minds, so I won’t spoil shit here, but let’s just say it’s awesome… and I can’t fucking wait for the next one!
Grade: B+