Title: Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
Director: Justin Lin
Cast: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Paul Walker, Michelle
Rodriguez, Sung Kang, Tyrese Gibson, Gal Gadot, Ludacris, Luke Evans, Elsa
Pataki
Review:
The important thing about a summer blockbuster is that it
has to entertain; it has to blow you out of that seat and it has to make you
leave that theater with a big fat grin on your face, and quite possibly the desire
to see the film again. Fast Six achieves all these things with spectacular
aplomb. With each film, the Fast and the Furious franchise has improved in quality; each film bigger than the last. Keeping in line
with this tendency, Fast Six is more explosive and more action packed then the previous
film and in my book that’s saying a lot because I truly enjoyed Fast Five (2011)!
Aside from the fact that the film was shot in my home town and I had an amazing opportunity to see it getting made, Fast Five ended up being one of my
favorites of the summer 2011 season, it was simply put a good action film. Now
can somebody tell me how in the hell did this franchise which I initially
disliked turn into one my favorite guilty pleasures?
Fast Six starts out exactly where the previous one left off,
with Toretto and crew enjoying the fruits of their last heist. Torreto is
living in Brazil with Elena, his new girlfriend cop. Brian and Mia are learning
how to become parents, and basically each of the characters has gone off into
their own world, doing what they want with their millions, enjoying the fruits
of their labor. Enter Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) the cop who almost caught Toretto
and crew in the last film. Hobbs is having a hard time catching an
international gang of thieves who are searching for the parts to build an emp
device that could shut down a whole country for 24 hours. Hobbs needs the aid
of Toretto and his team to stop these guys. Will the gang accept the mission?
When talking about films of this nature, there’s a term used
to describe the artifact that triggers the action in the film, I’m talking
about ‘The McGuffin’ whatever it is that the good guys and bad guys are after
in the film. The McGuffin is a name given to the excuse to get the show on the
road. Sometimes, it doesn’t even matter what the McGuffin is, all that matters
is how they go about getting it, which in a Fast and the Furious film means
vehicular warfare and massive destruction of public property, and trust me,
there’s lots of that in this film! The stunts are the best part of these films
and this one delivers the goods when it comes to fast cars and destruction in
massive amounts. The film has two major action sequences, but they are both
extended, which means that they last for more than 20 minutes each. This is
something I enjoy about the action sequences in these films, they are intricate
and extensive! The same can be said for the chase sequences which take place in
both the streets of London and Brazil. If you are a fan of cool cars and
watching them fly in the air, you will be pleased.
The whole thing about these films getting bigger and badder
with each passing film stays true to the characters as well. These characters
started out being a gang of street racing thugs from L.A. on the first film, by
the sixth film they’ve turned into indestructible super heroes! They can jump
from one moving car to the next! They can shoot their guns while jumping
through the air! I mean, these guys can fall down a flight of stairs or crash
into the windshield of a car and never even break a bone! Vin Diesel can even
take a freaking bullet and go on driving in the next scene just fine. So my
advice is to throw all your expectations of reality out the door. This film isn’t
interested in being real, it just wants to wow you, entertain you with its exaggerated
action sequences, which I have to say are truly fun. We get a bunch of cool
cars, a tank and military plane! They really do go all out here in using all
manner of cool vehicles.
It was a genius idea adding Dwayne Johnson into these series
of films. I’ve always thought that Johnson is the natural successor to Arnold Schwarzenegger,
and it seems there’s no stopping him now! The Rock starred in three films this
summer season (G.I. Joe Retaliation, Pain and Gain and now this one)and they’ve
all been huge money makers. I’m thinking we’ll be seeing a whole lot more of Dwayne
Johnson in action films! Now all he needs is a cool sci-fi film or a super hero
film, I can’t believe they’ve taken this long to do that. On Fast Six he has a
couple of cool moments, but one of them involves him going ‘mano a mano’ with
another massive dude, the battle is epic, the people in my theater where
chearing! Audiences are really into these films! When the title for the film
came up on screen some dude screamed “Whoo-hoo!” And speaking of fist fights,
the girls in the film also get a chance to show what they are made in a fight
that takes place in a subway station in London. Pretty cool scene, Michelle
Rodriguez and Gina Carano give a whole new meaning to cat fight. They really go
at each other’s throats!
True, the acting is not good at all in these films,
especially when Vin Diesel tries his stab at sentimentalism and gets all mushy
on us. It’s just too funny. But whatever, we don’t go to a movie like this one
searching for the performance of the year, we go into a movie like this for the
fun factor and on this one, the fun factor is quite high. When the action gets
going, it gets going. On the downside of things, there’s some faults in the logic
of some scenes, for example, there’s a scene that takes place on a landing
field, with a plane attempting to take off that was cool as hell, but also
unbelievable as hell because the landing field seemed to last forever and ever.
The filmmakers obviously had lots of cool stunts to pull off for that big
finale, unfortunately they forgot all about the logistics of a landing strip.
There’s no way in hell that a landing strip would go on for as long as the one
in this film does! That minor quip aside, I had tons of fun here. These films
are similar to reading a comic book, with a “to be continued” attached to the
ending…and this entry is no different. The ending will leave you wanting more, I
aint gonna spoil it for you, but if what I saw in the ending is any indication,
part seven should be pretty kick ass as well. I hear they are going back to
L.A. for that one! The series will apparently come full circle, looking forward
to that.
Rating: 4 out of 5
7 comments:
Michelle Rodriguez is quite a tasty bird, i just wish she was 18 instead of 34 ! ! !.
you still think about doing a 90s blog a thon,if so can you start on the first two films in the future :The last boy scout(1991) and speed(1994)?
Somehow i still prefer the two-car roll in "The Hitcher" (1986) simply because it was done with real cars instead of CGI bull-shit.
The Last Boy Scout = garbage.
Speed = minor classic.
Anonymous: I've been meaning to review The Last Boy Scout, and yeah, a 90's blog a thon is in the works, so keep your eyes peeled!
jimmie: Yeah, real stunts will always be better than CGI, but in defense of these films, a lot of the driving and stunts are done in real life, I witnessed this myself when they filmed Fast Five in my town.
This is Justin Lin's last film in the FF franchise (at least for now). Can't help but think this might be a MAJOR loss, and people might be underrating just how much he had to do with lifting this franchise to the success it's had recently.
You are absolutely right LLJ, if I am not mistaken, the director for part 7 is James Wan, the director behind Insidious, Dead Silence and the first SAW film. He's good with horror, but I don't know he'll be with an action film, especially one of this magnitude! I guess we'll have to wait and see, part 7 is slated to premiere Summer 2014. Of course I'm looking forward to it.
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