Fast and Furious 6 (also titles Fast Six and/or Furious 6):
In this film, the group has disbanded after their hugely successful heist in Rio de Janeiro in the previous film. Dominic Toretto and Elena Neves (a former Rio cop who joined the crew at the end of the last film) have settles down together. Brian O'Connor and Dom's sister Mia now have a son together (Mia was pregnant in the previous film) and the rest of the crew have spread out to different countries. Luke Hobbs (a Diplomatic Security Service agent from the last film) has them brought to him for a job: Hobbs wants to work with them to catch another crew of thieves, who also use cars, led by an ex-Special Air Service operative named Owen Shaw. The gang is a mirror image of Toretto's crew, and they agree to take the crew down when they learn that Dom's girlfriend Letty (who was supposedly killed in the fourth film) is alive and is a part of their gang. The crews begin using "vehicular warfare" against each other, employing not only sports cars, but modified Formula One racing cars, tanks, and planes. Now, while I don't think this film is as action-packed or fun as Fast Five, I will admit it's a fun action movie, one of those "leave your brain at the door" type of action movies, reminiscent of Michal Bay's 90's films such as The Rock or 80's films such as Commando. All of the crew (with the exception of Leo and Santos from the previous film, who were portrayed by Puerto Rican singers Tego Calderon and Don Omar) reappear. Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris Bridges, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, and Elsa Pataky all reprise their roles, even though Brewster and Pataky are kind of useless for most of the film, being there just because they were main characters in previous films. Model, martial artist, and actress Gina Carano (American Gladiators, Haywire) replaces Pataky as Johnson's sexy and strong female partner, named Riley. Luke Evans portrays the main villain, Owen Shaw. He's a typical Fast and Furious villain: he's pretty cool, and actually pretty threatening, but he isn't all that memorable. When you think of the Top 10 Villains of the Year, he probably won't be the first guy to come to mind. John Ortiz appears as Arturo, a former Shaw henchman, and Joe Taslim appears as Jah, Shaw's cold-blooded henchmen, who is brutal fighter and expert killer, who uses advanced martial arts techniques to take down his enemies. Rita Ora, a British songwriter, makes a cameo as the leader of a London racing gang. The main cast do their best to fill the roles, but they're basically typical action heroes. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Vin Diesel are the stand-outs in this film, even outshining Paul Walker. Johnson and Diesel just have a bad-ass presence, and seem like really cool guys. Now, before you see this film, I recommend you see the previous two installments, or at least read up on them, as it kind of depends on you already knowing what happened. Now, although the action scenes are fantastic, especially the fight in the Subway, the first car chase, the tank chase, and the ending airplane sequence. But, with one complaint, certain scenes, despite being awesome have characters using some bad logic, and certain things make no sense. Like the airport runway: it must be the longest in the world, and some of the stunts, such as the one at the end of the tank chase, are unrealistic and defy physics (as many have complained). But if you don't care about that stuff, you'll enjoy yourself. Some of the jokes in the film work, too. Some don't, but the majority work okay. Director Justin Lin (who has been with the franchise since the third film) has a very flashy, fast-paced style, which works for the film, and he announced this is the last film he's doing for the franchise. The soundtrack in the film, isn't the best. I'm not a big fan of modern hip hop/pop, and they use a lot of pop-like rap songs in this film. The opening song during the short opening credits (which has clips from all the previous films, as if it's a recap) isn't that bad, but most of the songs are. A funny thing is during the ending credits, right after the producing credits, there's a Jackass-like warning not to attempt the dangerous stunts in the film. No shit people aren't gonna try that stuff, it's not even physically possible to defy physics (duh). Despite it's many flaws, Furious 6 (or Fast and the Furious 6) is an exhilarating, over-the-top, dumb-fun action film, and it's entertaining as all hell. 3.5/5 stars.
SPOILER SEGMENT: Similar to The Hangover Part III, only a few credits roll before the post-credits scene. (Major Spoilers Ahead) During the final action sequence on the plane, Giselle (Gal Gadot) sacrifices herself to save her lover Han (Sung Kang), prompting him to kill the thug who was attacking them in a fit of rage. After the family gathering at the very end, Han goes to Tokyo, as him and Giselle planned to settle down there after they took down Shaw's crew. Han joins in a thrilling street race, before being tailed by a car with an unseen driver. The driver slams into Han from the side, sending his race car flying and rolling down the street, landing upside down. Han, bleeding and barely alive, groans in his seat as the driver of the mystery car gets out. Revealed to be Jason Statham (playing an unnamed character), the driver gets on the phone, and Han's car explodes in the background, tragically killing him. The driver gets on the phone and leaves Dom a threatening message: "Dominic Toretto, you don't know me, but you're about to...." Right after that, I thought The Transporter vs. The Fast and the Furious, sounds pretty bad-ass. Side-rant: Although Justin Lin has stated he will not return as director for a seventh film, James Wan has been announced as the director. If you are unfamiliar with Wan's name, you are definitely familiar with his work. He is the young New Zealander who directed the first Saw film, as well as horror hits like Dead Silence, Insidious, and the upcoming The Conjuring. Now, although the end credits scene excited me, I don't understand. This film feels like it wraps up the series, and the directing choice is odd. Wan is a great young filmmaker, but he's going to be taken completely out of his element. He's been working in the horror-thriller genre for nearly ten years (next year is Saw's ten-year anniversary), and only this genre, despite trying to branch out into different genres. I feel like easing him in is better, rather than throwing him from creepy horror-thrillers to fun action blockbusters. At least let him direct a dark action-thriller before, so he can ease into the genre better. Did they think because they were both Asian they were both fit for the series? I'm unsure, but I'm still excited. Fantastic filmmaker paired with a fun franchise? Sounds good to me. SPOILER SEGMENT
(Left, poster, which is very similar to the previous film's poster, Image: Wikipedia)
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