Fast & Furious 6

• Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto
• Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner
• Dwayne Johnson as Hobbs
• Jordana Brewster as Mia
• Michelle Rodriguez as Letty
• Luke Evans as Owen Shaw

Since Dom and Brian's Rio heist toppled a kingpin's empire and left their crew with $100 million, our heroes have scattered across the globe. But their inability to return home and living forever on the lam have left their lives incomplete. Meanwhile, Hobbs has been tracking an organization of lethally skilled mercenary drivers across 12 countries, whose mastermind is aided by a ruthless second-in-command revealed to be the love Dom thought was dead, Letty. The only way to stop the criminal outfit is to outmatch them at street level, so Hobbs asks Dom to assemble his elite team in London. Payment? Full pardons for all of them so they can return home and make their families whole again.
(May 26, 2013)

Fast & Furious has quietly shaped up as the (not so) little franchise that could. Kicking off in 2001 with an action-packed Point Break-style story about an undercover cop infiltrating a gang of street racers, this custom built franchise – largely under the guidance of its star, Vin Diesel – has barrel-rolled over its first two subpar sequels, and really come into its own with its fourth, fifth and now sixth installments. That’s right, this is the sixth film in the series, and yet the Fast & Furiousmovies are rarely mentioned when talk turns to Hollywood’s major franchises. Why? Maybe because these films aren’t really aimed at critics, or people who sit around banging away on internet forums or blogs all day.   

Fast & Furious 6 opens with Dom Toretto (Diesel) and his crew of international, heist-pulling, exiled criminals (Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges) now living off the spoils of their ill-gotten gains accrued during Fast & Furious 5, but unable to re-enter the US. The previous film’s antagonist, Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) – now partnered with Agent Riley (played by Haywire’s butt-kicking female-action-superstar-in-waiting, Gina Carano) – rocks up and offers them a deal: full pardons for the whole gang if they help him track down Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), an ex-Special Forces soldier turned military hardware hijacker. The hook? Shaw appears to be working with Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), Dom’s presumed-dead true love.

Though it often has its tongue jammed tightly into its cheek (some of the stunts and dialogue are absurdly over the top), Fast & Furious 6 also has a lot of respect for the character-building undertaken in the previous films. Taking on a saga-like feel, the Fast & Furious flicks have seen the characters grow in an enjoyable and mythic way. Sure, these films are hardly of the blue ribbon variety (and they don’t pretend to be), but you actually do care about what is going to happen to the characters, which makes you invest in the often ridiculous action sequences, and gladly go along for the ride. It’s the kind of simple set-up that many action directors could actually learn from: if you don’t care about who’s involved in the action, it’s just a lot of sound and fury.Fast & Furious 6 has its priorities right (boasting biff and bash by the truckload), but this rollicking and wildly entertaining actioner plays out with just enough savvy and smarts to make it stick.

Love,

D