This summer seems to have a recurring motif; unexpected franchises. Who would have thought Iron Man would’ve made a halfway decent feature, let alone wind up becoming the second MARVEL superhero film to make $1 billion. Who would’ve thought the crew of the Enterprise would’ve returned for their best adventure ever? And now, who would’ve predicted that a little film from 2001, that mainly featured fast cars and a plot as predictable as they come, would’ve turn into one of the world’s biggest franchises? “The Fast And Furious” movies have become some of the most beloved movies on the planet, with folks from different continents united in their love of Vin Diesel driving really, really fast.
Luckily, the sixth entry in this movie series, “Fast & Furious 6”, continues another trend of this summer’s flicks: high quality. This is the best entry in this film series yet, one that ramps up the humor and action and winds up becoming a delightfully exhilarating experience.
The whole “Fast and Furious” crew has been enjoying the millions they swiped in “Fast Five”, living the good life; until a racing team lead by Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) steals a super powerful device that Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is desperate to reclaim. So desperate in fact, that he calls in Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) to reassemble his team to track down Shaw. With new-dad Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker) back, things seem to be going alright, until Dominic’s presumed dead girlfriend, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) reappears as part of Shaw’s gang.
Not every movie is, or even should be, high caliber, melodramatic Christopher Nolan-esque cinema. Fine by me. If one tries to make everything in action films super serious, you wind up with funless messes like “Clash of The Titans” or “Cowboys & Aliens”. If your film isn’t dealing with topics like terrorism or foreign affairs in allegorical ways, the best thing one can do is revel in your action sequences and try to create as much fun for your audience as possible. “Fast & Furious 6” delivers such requirements in spades, making up for a pretty terrible script, with humor and action scenes that will leave your jaw dropped.
I’m actually a big fan of the humor of the film, mainly because the man who delivers most of the laughs is Tyrese Gibson, who turns out to have superb timing and has excellent chemistry with every single member of the cast. But don’t think the rest of the cast isn’t up to the task of making you chuckle; Dwayne Johnson gets a couple of fun lines, while Ludacris also delivers several hilarious moments. Similar to “The Avengers”, the presence of humor really is one of the film’s most surprising and delightful aspects.
As for the action scenes, at this point, director Justin Lin is like Beethoven playing a symphony at the height of his career; he’s become a master of his artistic domain. These guys do the most stupid, yet strangely awesome, set pieces that somehow never make the film feel like it’s overstepped its boundaries. Perhaps the best scene in this regard is where a tank chases the gang across highway, which includes not only Tyrese Gibson delivering great one-liners, but also has a physics-defying moment that’s just stupefying enough for me to overlook it’s obvious impossibility. After all, the fun of this film’s is it’s bending of reality to suit it’s sense of escalating spectacle.
While I liked the scripts inclusion of humor and action scenes, this is a pretty pitiful screenplay all things considered. The film almost falls into the trap the fourth entry in the series “Fast & Furious” ran into, which is that nothing really happens and characters sort of go around in circles for long periods of time solely to keep the movie going until the next awe-inspiring set piece. Thankfully, this feeling of boredom lasts for a very brief portion, but it keeps the film from achieving true cinematic glory. Also, some of the dialogue in this film is atrocious, although it is humorously quotable.
The cast at this point is well established, with Vin Diesel playing the tough-but-lovable leader with finesse and ease. Paul Walker doesn’t show much range, but that’s OK since he does fine in action scenes. Luke Evans also gets to almost rectify a complaint I’ve had all of these “Fast And Furious” flicks; they’ve always lacked a decent bad guy. For a film series that indulges in a wild excess of action scenes and laugh-out-loud moments, they’ve been surprisingly restrained in terms of antagonists, with many of them being simple corrupt politicians or drug dealers. While the bad guys may not be perfect here, I do have high hopes that “Fast & Furious 7” should make good use of Jason Statham and finally create a worthy villain for this franchise.
“Fast & Furious 6” is a surprisingly fun movie that realizes all the potential the film series has had all along. It’s rare for a film series to last more than three movies, let alone have some shred of quality left, but the “Fast and Furious” franchise has just made it’s best movie in it’s sixth entry. Count me in as the many pleased people who are ecstatic with what this movie series has become. It still needs to work on characterization and it’s script, but when it comes to creating top-of-the-line exhilarating cinema, “Fast & Furious 6” wins that race, hands down.
