Directed by: Justin Lin.
Written by: Chris Morgan based on characters created by Gary Scott Thompson.
Starring: Vin Diesel (Dominic Toretto), Paul Walker (Brian O'Conner), Dwayne Johnson (Hobbs), Jordana Brewster (Mia), Michelle Rodriguez (Letty), Tyrese Gibson (Roman), Sung Kang (Han), Gal Gadot (Gisele), Ludacris (Tej), Luke Evans (Shaw), Elsa Pataky (Elena), Gina Carano (Riley), Clara Paget (Vegh), Kim Kold (Klaus), Johannes Taslim (Jah), Samuel M. Stewart (Denlinger), Benjamin Davies (Adolfson), Matthew Stirling (Oakes), David Ajala (Ivory), Thure Lindhardt (Firuz), Shea Whigham (Stasiak), John Ortiz (Braga).
After
watching Fast & Furious 6, I think it’s time to admit that I have been too
hard on this series of movies over the years. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not all
of sudden saying that the films represent great art, because they don’t. They
are still 6 absolutely ridiculous movies that in order to enjoy you have to
turn off your brain. Yet, the series has done two rather remarkable things. The
first is that the quality of the movies has been consistent over 6 movies –
none of them are great, none of them are terrible, they are all varying degrees
of good or ok – in fact this sixth installment just may be my favorite. The
second thing the series has done that most series of its ilk has not – it has
kept up its continuity. That may seem like I’m damning the movie with faint
praise, but I don’t intend to – considering how many horror franchises make 6
or more installments of their series – and considering that most of them become
unwatchable by the third installment, this is much harder than it looks.
The
second remarkable thing about the series is that while I may not take the
storylines very seriously –the filmmakers do. In Fast & Furious 6, the film
brings back characters – both major and minor – from all the other
installments, and keeps trusts the audience to know who they are. And not once
but twice, the film flashes back to earlier installments, and gives us
additional information then we had at the time – once to explain why one of the
characters we thought was dead isn’t, and the other time to put a character’s
death into a broader context. The films have been toying with us ever since
installment number 4 – when the filmmakers rightly realized that if they were
going to bring back just one character from Tokyo Drift, it damn well better be
Han (Sung Kang), and found a way around his death in that movie, by setting the
three movies that came after Tokyo Drift before it on the series’ internal
timeline. Ever since, Han has been my favorite character. Now perhaps all of
that is too serious for a movie – and series – like Fast & Furious – I’ll
certainly admit that it is. But it is one of things I appreciate about the
series – the filmmakers take it seriously enough that they don’t take the lazy
way out like many series do, but not so seriously that it drags the movies down
– turning the Han deathwatch into a dark, running joke (every movie has him
reference moving to Tokyo – but he never does).
I’ve
rambled on about these things and not Fast & Furious 6 by itself, because
really, what is there that needs to be said? By this point, you’re either into
this series or not – you can either sit back, turn off your brain and enjoy two
hours of fast cars, gorgeous women, action, Vin Diesel’s gritty voice, and Paul
Walker’s blank stares or you can’t. The movies do seem to try and up the ante every
time out – so this time – and I’m giving nothing away since both in the trailer
– the boys and their cars take on a tank in one scene in a jumbo jet in
another. Can you believe any of this? Of course not. Do you really care? I
didn’t.
This
movie benefits from a few other things as well. I thought the last installment
missed Michelle Rodriguez’s tough, sexy Letty – and apparently the filmmakers
did too because they bring her back – but this time, she’s on the other side,
and is the bait Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) uses to get Domenic and his team to help
him stop a madman bent on assembling some sort of device that could cripple a
nation (is this the fast and furious or a Bond movie). And then they also bring
Gina Carano from Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire– the one woman I could believe
could hold her own in a fight with Rodriguez – and she proceeds to do that not
once but twice.
This
may be the last installment of the series directed by Justin Lin – who has
directed the last four, and has done an increasingly good job each time out.
Because they wanted Fast & Furious 7 – which they set up in this one –
ready for next year, Lin didn’t think he could do it in time, and backed out.
The reins will be taken over by James Wan – who did the first Saw movie (which
is good – don’t blame him for what happened later in the series) and the even
better Insidious. Perhaps this is a blessing for Lin. He burst onto the scene
with the wonderful, dark high school film Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) about
very smart Asian kids who gradually dig themselves in deeper and deeper into
trouble until someone ends up dead. Since then, he has essentially been doing
this series (and the largely forgettable Annapolis). Perhaps now, he can
fulfill more of the promise he showed in Better Luck Tomorrow.
I’m
not claiming that Fast & Furious 6 is a great movie. It’s not. But it
excels at being precisely what it is. You cannot take a moment of it seriously,
and you’ll likely forget many of the details before you hit the parking lot.
But as big, dumb, loud, fast summer entertainment goes – Fast & Furious 6
fits the bill nicely.
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