Fast & Furious 6

Starring: Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Sung Kang, Gina Carano, Gal Gadot, Luke Evans, Sung Kang, Jason Statham (cameo)
Directed by: Justin Lin
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
2013

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: Brian (Paul Walker) and Dom (Vin Diesel) once again unit their crew together again, this time to bring down an international criminal (Luke Evans).

Review:
Tim: The Fast & Furious franchise is pretty remarkable. It's one of the best examples of a franchise that was headed downward, but made a pretty stunning reversal. The last couple entries have been quite strong. And then, we come to the sixth film. Now, in some ways, this movie once again delivers what we've come to expect- fast cars, big explosions, and exciting action. In other ways, this film pushes the boundaries of credibility far too much. It's the absurd aspects of this film that really bring it down. This is the first film since the third movie that represents a drop in quality.

Now, this film does have some real strengths. The biggest strength involves the impressive cast. It's great once again to see Paul Walker and Vin Diesel reprise their roles as Brian and Dom. These two work so well together and are just fun to see interacting on screen. I really like these two, and they are the continual heart of the franchise. The addition of Dwayne Johnson was a brilliant move, and it's awesome to see him once again in this role. It was a terrific idea teaming Walker and Diesel with their previous nemesis, Johnson. That gives the film an interesting flavor, and it allows these three actors to team up. The idea of bringing back Michelle Rodriguez is a little controversial (it's a bit hard to believe), but it did create a shocking conclusion to the previous film, and it's fun to explore that aspect here. It was nice seeing her back in the franchise. The movie found a fun villain in Luke Evans, who does a pretty good job as this cocky international criminal. The rest of the cast is fun, too- from Tyrese Gibson to Ludcris and the whole team. Although Gina Carano is a bad actress, she was fun in a way. The cast of this movie is quite good.

I do love how this franchise continually reinvents itself. In the last film, the appeal was seeing Dwayne Johnson chasing Walker, Diesel, and the team. In this film, the franchise reinvents itself again by pairing these three together on the same team. Previous enemies become friends, and Dom's team now changes their stripes, instead of being criminals, they are working with the police to bring another group of criminals to justice. This is just brilliant- it breathes new life into the franchise, as they previous criminals could now explore many new avenues in future films. If the franchise keeps it fresh, we could one day see a Fast & Furious 10. That's pretty remarkable.

So, the film does do a lot well. It features some good action sequences, a few nice car chases that we've come to expect. It features some unexpected twists and the pacing of the film is quite good. It keeps you engaged. Now, the film also suffers from some massive flaws. The film features too many moments that just defy any and all logic or realism. These moments detract from the overall film because it reminds you that the whole film is pretty much absurd. This franchise works when it gets you to forget the story is ridiculous because you're having too much fun with it. There's a few terrible moments- one is when Vin Diesel leaps from a speeding car, catches Michelle Rodriguez in the air (who is hurling in a different direction), and saves her by crashing into a car windshield (which apparently broke his fall?). The whole thing is so absurd and unrealistic- even if you could time it up perfectly, the speed would have killed them both. That was hard to buy.

The other scene that just killed me was the most controversial and talked about scene in the film- the big conclusion on the airport runway. The scene was very exciting, but just ridiculously long. You can google a number of sites that analyze the length of the scene, the speed of the aircraft, and the distance it would have had to cover- basically, the runway would have to be about ten times longer than any airport runway on the planet Earth. Watching the scene, this fact was overwhelmingly obvious and it took me out the scene. It was just too much, too long, and too hard to believe. I really think it's scenes like this that greatly detracted from the overall quality. Some suspension of disbelief is always required for these movies, but this film was just asking way too much.

Fast & Furious 6 isn't a terrible movie, but it does represent a drop in quality from the last two films. I'd actually place this movie 4th best out of the 6 movies. There are worse movies in the franchise, but there's better one too. This movie is fine, but I sincerely hope this doesn't represent an emerging trend- this franchise has had an amazing run, but it needs to present a more believable story or it might be in trouble in the future. Still, it's pretty stunning that this franchise has already made it to six movies- bring on the seventh!

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Ronin, Timeline, A Man Apart, XXX