2013: The Year in Film: "Fast & Furious 6" Review

As you may or may not know, I explored the highs and lows of this franchise by watching the entirety of the series over the past-few weeks. [See Below] From the depths of "2 Fast 2 Furious" to the height of "Fast 5", the characters of Dom Toretto and company have made an ABSURD amount of money and quite a mark on the last decade or so. In fact, as I write this post, Fast & Furious 6 has set a record for the largest Memorial Day opening weekend of all time, which is utterly preposterous. Over the span of 5 movies, a crew of rag-tag street racers have become master criminals and masters of combat... and I'm 100% cool with that. In the realm of movies in 2013, there simply aren't a lot of outlets for old-school, tongue-in-cheek, over-the-top action in the realm of its 80's and 90's heyday. Flicks in the spirit of Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, The Rock, Face-Off and the collected works of Arnold Schwarzenegger that existed as a sort of testosterone-laden escapism full of quips, one-liners and a winking acknowledgement that yes, this is preposterous, and yes, we're laughing too are largely extinct, driven the way of the dodo by superhero flicks and serious-minded effects driven works along the lines of the Matrix flicks and asian imports. Somehow a film series that began with a blatant rip-off of Point Break with a hip hop soundtrack and street racing became maybe the finest example of the action genre in movies today. It's insane, and I think I just might love it. So let's check out part 6, shall we?

First, the film opens with a "previously on Fast and Furious"-style montage that is both amazing and entirely apropos. We absolutely need more of this in sequels. If you're going in to watch Fast & Furious 6, I would recommend watching the trailers to 1-4 on youtube, renting Fast 5 and then going in and enjoying some absurdly awesome action madness if you haven't seen the series to this point. You'll be all caught up and have managed to save yourself from the crapfest that is flicks 2 and 4. After the events of Fast 5 the crew finds themselves chilling in style.. until they are approached by Hobbs (The Rock) to help catch a former British commando who is robbing military equipment across the globe in an effort to sell advanced weaponry on the black market. He's a master strategist, always one step ahead of the authorities, and he and his crew just might be the best... so the best need to stop him. Here, the best apparently is a crew of street racers who started in LA. After Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is spotted riding with Shaw and his crew, Dom and his crew are convinced to help Hobbs stop his plot in exchange for full pardons. Enter some insane (and tremendously done) action sequences as our heroes try to outsmart a man who has a plan for everything.

The Good: This flick features 3 or 4 of the most insane non-superpowered (allegedly...) action sequences you will see in this or any year. It's not just car chases anymore (although of course we have plenty of fast cars..), as the spectacularly assembled and choreographed fights, chases, battles and heists are all great fun. I'm prepared to say that Justin Lin is in the top tier of action directors today when it comes to putting together an action sequences. The scenes are clean, easy to follow, and pack a serious punch. Those last few sentences are completely unironic and without snark. Lin knows how to put together an action scene. Also, at this point the actors are all comfortable in their characters which allows the film to have an easy flow with plenty of comedic quips. The bromance between the Rock and Vin Diesel is straight up homoerotic magic. There are at least 3 scenes where they WOULD kiss if they weren't just too hardass for it. I love it. Whoever decided to bring in the Rock and just make him the ultimate badass in this series is my actual, real-life hero. He actually has superhuman attributes, (there is a scene where he throws a fully grown man around a room, completely destroying it that is pure magic, and another where he jumps 40+ feet onto a moving vehicle) drives a gigantic truck, and plays the unabashedly competent straight man while everyone romps around him. It's ridiculous nonsense. At this point, Vin Diesel IS Dom Toretto, and he's turned the character into an almost reserved and understated alpha male. The cadence of his lines, absolute firmness of his convictions and unreserved badassery ALMOST makes Dom a member of the Greatest Generation or something like it.  Tyrese and Ludacris really play their "class clown" roles with aplomb, and lovers Han and Gisele (I think they aren't actors and just really ARE these people...) are competent and quite compelling, if underused. The villains in this film, almost mirror images of our heroes, are menacing in that they are not merely overmatched villains to be outsmarted and outdriven but actually the equal of Toretto and crew. It makes for an interesting dynamic. Newcomer Gina Carano provides a little badassery on the female side of things and has an epic throwdown or two with Michelle Rodriguez that seems destined from the stars.

The Bad: Paul Walker, while he's certainly better (just in that he has a smaller role to carry, his #2 position having been supplanted by the Rock), is still pretty useless. Jordana Brewster, in a flick (actually!) full of strong and competent women, is a joke. The plot involving the return of Michelle Rodriguez and explanation thereof makes little sense and the flick doesn't even pretend that it does. If anything (and this will sound silly...), the flick goes a LITTLE TOO far. I almost feel like it jumps the shark at times. There are a few scenes that go over the top even from Fast 5, and not that that's necessarily a bad thing, it just feels TOO big, TOO ridiculous, in that it goes beyond suspending disbelief into "these people have super powers, right??". Again, you come into these things knowing what you're getting, but it's just a little too much on occasion. There's a fine line here.

In all, on the strength of some outstanding and over the top action sequences, some strong characterization, a tight plot and strong character acting, this is a fine action flick. We've got heyday of action era bromance and ridiculous action scenes going on, what's not to like? There are some weak links, and some scenes that are simply TOO absurd for me to give it the straight-up "great" label, but it's a lot of fun. If you're in the mood for a fun time at the movies, you could do much worse than Fast & Furious 6... and dare I say that I'm actually looking forward to 7? There is a credits scene that's a straight teaser for 7... and I won't spoil it, but it's awesome. Especially if you've seen Tokyo Drift.

7/10. I like Fast & Furious now. Damn you, Rock, you charming bastard.

... P.S., after 3 whole movies of wondering "HOW THE HELL IS HAN ALIVE????" while he teases us with "maybe I'll go to Tokyo..." we finally get an answer: FAST AND FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT IS IN THE FUTURE!!!?!?!?!. That is so awesome/insane that only the Fast and Furious flicks could pull it off. Here's hoping that they bring back 35 year old Lucas "Fake Channing Tatum" Black to play his 19-years-old-in-Fast and Furious-continuity character. The timeline of the series actually and legitimately goes: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 3, 7. That's incredible.