Fast and Furious 6: Blu Ray Review

Fast and Furious 6: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Entertainment

Last time, if you remember in Fast Five, the gang had carried off one last heist and were taking it easy, despite being scattered around the world and living on the run. But, despite the so-called quiet life, Vin Diesel's Toretto is visited by Agent Hobbs (walking musclemanDwayne Johnson) who enlists his help to bring down a criminal mastermind, Shaw (played with relative lack of screen presence by Luke Evans).

The hook this time, though, is that Dom Toretto (gravelly-voiced muscle-head Vin Diesel) finds out that his one time girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is still alive - despite being killed off earlier on in the series.....

Furious 6 (to give it its onscreen title name) is exactly what you'd expect from the car-racing series - pumping OST, fast cars and lots of racing scenes. This time though, it's less car-mageddon than you may be expecting. And unfortunately, despite the quality increase of Fast Five, which had some cool stunts and a not too insufferable storyline, this one's hardly off the starting blocks. Posturing machismo, po-faced and for the most part straight-laced, Furious 6 is a bit of a formulaic racing romp with a story that's predictable and almost laughable in places. Granted, you're not expecting Shakespearean tragedy and quality acting from this series, you're after breakneck speed racing and stunts that make you gasp and gravitate to the edge of your seat. The actors give their all despite never really facing any definite peril and the series is to be praised for continually using strong action women (aside from Jordana Brewster, who's literally left holding the baby)

This time round, despite setting the predominance of the film in London (which begs the question how can these cars speed around the capital's central roads? Every time I've ever been there's a degree of congestion) and utilising the environment to the best of its ability, the whole thing's a bit of a damp squib. One final twist in the tale delivers the ultimate punch and sets up yet more of these films - but unless the producers of this series come up with something exciting next time rather than running on half-empty plot ideas, it's to be hoped thatFast and the Furious franchise is going to be taken to the junkyard and scrapped.

Extras: 50 minutes of behind the scenes footage

Rating: