Fast and Furious 6: Movie Review
Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Dwayne Johnson, Luke Evans, Gina Carano, Jordana Brewster
Director: Justin Lin
Gentlemen, start your engines, once again for another entrant into the Fast and the Furious franchise.
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 muscleman Dwayne 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.
Diesel barely proffers a hint of emotion in any of the delivery of his lines; likewise Evans hardly registers on the baddie scale, knocking up nary a sinister smile as a guy who's stealing some tech to wreak some kind of havoc. The racing sequences don't exactly leave you breathless this time either as they're all so predictable and shot from the same wheel hub angle all throughout; the one sequence that actually impresses is on a Spanish bridge which sees the most enthralling of conclusions. Even a catfight between two girls and some beat-downs of the other team members delivers a few bloodless thrills but stretch credibility. But, the final sequence which takes place on an incredibly long airbase strip is too dark to register anything other than muddied confusion as it plays out all guns, cars and gung-ho blazing.
Then, what would you expect from a formulaic and functional film that delivers women gyrating in skimpy clothing at a London car meet, a flying headbutt takedown from its hero and administers amnesia to bring Rodriguez's Letty into conflict with the old gang?
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 that Fast and the Furious franchise is going to be taken to the junkyard and scrapped.
Rating:
