Fast five…furious six.
Who would have thought that the Fast and Furious franchise would still be going strong over a
decade later? Probably not anyone who has seen the early films. The Fast and the Furious was a rough
looking B-movie directed by schlockmaster Rob Cohen with a story lifted right
out of Point Break, just with cars
instead of surfboards. 2 Fast 2 Furious
was a mind-numbing take on the buddy action pic that was at least benefited
from the gorgeous Miami setting and slick direction by John Singleton. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
was a threequel that should have gone straight to video as it featured none of
the original actors though Vin Diesel made a brief cameo. What saves Tokyo Drift from the scrapheap were some
cool racing sequences, the introduction of Sung Kang as the laid back Han, and
Justin Lin stepping behind the wheel to steer the series forward.
Fast and Furious was
a fresh start, doing away with the articles and subtitles as it transitioned
the franchise from the subculture of street racing to thunderous action. Fast Five was essentially The Avengers on four wheels, culling
together an all-star team of past characters and reveling in widescreen
vehicular mayhem. Good to know that Furious
6 is more of the same.
When last we left them, Dominic Toretto (Diesel) and his
cohorts were living the high life after stealing millions of dollars from a
Brazilian drug lord. Not exactly hiding his newfound wealth, Toretto is easily
found by federal agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), who recruits his band of
racers to bring down a new gang led by a former Special Forces operative named
Owen Shaw (Luke Evans). One of Shaw's henchmen just happens to be Toretto's
previously dead girlfriend Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), now suffering from
amnesia. Shaw has cut a path of destruction across Europe in an attempt to
steal the parts to build an electromagnetic weapon that can disable a country's
entire defense network.
Furious 6 features
a loaded ensemble and the movie doesn't give everybody a fair share of the
spotlight. Jordana Brewster's Mia Toretto, for example, is pushed off to the
side. Meanwhile, the charisma of Dwayne Johnson and the braggadocio of Tyrese
Gibson more than offset the monotone growling of Vin Diesel and the bland Paul
Walker. Screenwriter Chris Morgan, who has been at Lin's side since Tokyo Drift, doesn't write the snappiest
banter, but the chemistry of the principal cast make it work. In regards to the
new characters, Luke Evans doesn't make much of an impression as the villain,
mostly because there isn't a lot on the page aside from his quest for a
MacGuffin device. Gina Carano is a welcome addition though she's only there for
a pair of knockdown, drag-out catfights with Michelle Rodriguez. Also thrown
into the mix is Joe Taslim from The Raid:
Redemption who gets into a wicked brawl with Gibson, Kang and a handful of
hapless Bobbies in the London subway.
Despite some fun fisticuffs, the driving sequences don't
match up to Fast Five, especially the
climactic carnage through the streets of Rio. After a lengthy opening section
in which the band gets back together, Lin finally gets loose with a London
chase. There's some cool stuff such as the use of a modified formula-1 racer
with a ramp that flips oncoming cars. However, most of the action is lost in
the frenetic camerawork and the dark nighttime setting. The same problems occur
at the conclusion during a wild set piece in which our heroes race alongside a
massive cargo plane on what must have been the longest runway in the world. The
pursuit is broken up into several smaller battles, which have been energetically
edited together. The best sequence happens to be when Shaw hijacks a tank and
callously crushes innocent bystanders on the highway.
Fast and Furious 6
is everything you want from an overblown summer blockbuster. The engines roar
at ear-splitting decibels as the g-forces push against you until your brain
cells turn to mush. There's some apprehension about Fast and Furious 7 since Universal fast-tracked (no pun intended)
for next summer leading to the departure of Justin Lin and the arrival of James
Wan (Saw, Insidious). However, the post-credit sequence effectively teases
that we will be in for quite a ride.
P.S. – Kudos go to Morgan and Lin for their architecture of
the series mythology. Either through meticulous planning or just last-minute
retcons, they've managed to cast Tokyo
Drift, arguably the worst of the franchise, into a new intriguing light.
Rating: *** (*****)
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