Fast & Furious 6

Reviews from the Dark Side presents
 Fast & Furious 6
Released 5/24/13, now in theaters

Action junkies rejoice!  The sixth installment of the high octane franchise is here.  Dwayne Johnson reprises his role from Fast 5 and is rejoined by series regulars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, and Chris Bridges.  Fast 6 picks up the story after the shock ending of Fast 5.  Let the murder and mayhem commence!

Dominic Toretto (Diesel) and his crew have retired in different parts of the world as wanted fugitives, but extremely rich ones after splitting a $100 million take from the previous film's adventure.  All is well until DSS Agent Hobbs (Johnson) comes calling.

A former British Special Forces soldier, Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), and his own crew of highly skilled drivers have taken down a Russian military convoy.  What Hobbs knows will be of particular importance to Dom is that Dom's former lover, Letty Ortiz (Rodriguez), believed dead is working with Shaw.  Shaw has been stealing components to assemble a device that can cut power to an entire region/country.  He intends to sell the device to the highest bidder.  Hobbs needs Dom's crew and their special talents to take Shaw down. 

Dom assembles Brian (Walker), Roman (Gibson), Tej (Bridges), Han (Sung Kang), and Gisele (Gal Gadot) to meet with Hobbs.  Brian has a condition for assisting the DSS.  He wants full pardons for the entire crew (including his girlfriend/Dom's sister, Mia) so they can come back to the U.S.  When Hobbs agrees, it becomes a race against time for Dom's crew to find and neutralize Shaw and his henchmen before they can acquire all the components.  For Dom, it's personal as he's on a mission to reunite with Letty. 

I've never been a huge fan of this series.  Don't misunderstand. I've liked the movies on a basic level, but have never been enamored with them.  I guess I've always found them a little light in the plot area (even for an action movie).  Fast 6 is no different.  The only thing that keeps it from being a standard actioner is the charisma of both Diesel and Johnson who work very well as an onscreen tandem. Both even add a little WWE style action to the mix as they double team one of the Shaw's henchmen.   I'd like to see them in a film outside of the Fast franchise one day. 

The action is in your face there's no doubt in that.  If you like car chases, fist fights, or gun battles, Fast 6 has it all.  It's all well choreographed, however, the cinematography was a little muddy at times.  I'm particularly referring to the films final scenes which take place at night.  The scenes are cut in such a furious, slap-dash way that it's sometimes hard to tell what's going on.  The darkness doesn't help much either. 

Fast 6 is an entertaining film if not a great one.  There are death defying stunts galore and more than one situation that will make you roll your eyes a little bit, but it's mostly a lot of exhausting fun.  As in Fast 5, there is a prelude to the next sequel.  And let me say, the villain who makes a cameo appearance here does have me excited for Fast 7.


The Dark Lord of the Sith says:

***1/4 stars

Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee. Buy this on DVD when released!
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.