‘Fast And Furious 6’ Review: The ‘Fast And Furious’ Movie Fans Never Imagined Possible
By Germain Lussier/May 24, 2013 3:45 pm EST
Finally, Fast and Furious 6 marks the total obliteration of any semblance of reality or logic in the franchise.
Speeding through a city with a huge safe in tow seemed crazy in Fast Five. In Fast and Furious 6 Lin expands the action to absurd proportions, creating set pieces and action beats that defy physics and coherence. Yet it all works to purring perfection. After five movies, all roads indeed lead to this madness.
Picking up almost immediately where Fast Five left off, we’re once again with Brian (Paul Walker) and Dom (Vin Diesel), who are enjoying living life as retired multi-millionaires. Government agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) comes knocking in search of their unique skill set for high-stakes crime, as he needs help with the apprehension of international criminal Owen Shaw (Luke Evans). From there, the Fast Five team – including characters played by Ludacris, Tyrese, Sung Kang and Gal Gadot – is reassembled. This happens fairly quickly, allowing Lin to dive into first of many action set pieces, many of which are almost too unbelievable.
Lin has two really great things going on in Fast and Furious 6. First, the story uses characters and situations from the previous films to drive the action forward, linking the movies together with very satisfying emotional bonds. This gives this film a deep grounding, and raises stakes that are totally new to the franchise.
Second, he’s paced the film at an almost frightening speed. The down times are short, creating an onslaught of relentless action. Most of the action scenes are longer and more intense than anything in the previous films, and conceived on grander scale. For example, the first major scene, involving a so-called a flip car (which is like a combination street racer, skate ramp, and Batmobile), could have easily been the finale of any other film in the series. But here, there’s a tank sequence followed by a plane sequence, followed by your jaw hitting the floor. The action never feels too repetitive because each set piece is broken up by another that’s different from the ones surrounding it.
With Fast and Furious 6, Justin Lin has created the Fast and Furious movie fans never imagined was possible. It’s bigger and more exciting than Fast Five, but dumber than all the previous films combined. It is insane, huge, ridiculous fun. Its not-so-tragic flaw, as expressed in the overboard action and frequent references to the previous five films, is assuming everyone in the audience is a fan of the franchise. At this point, sitting down to watch the sixth film, you’re either with it or you’re not. I’m totally with it.
/Film Rating: 8 out of 10
