Review - Fast & Furious 6 (2013)

Starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson.
Directed by Justin Lin.

A few years ago I thought this franchise was dead; but here we are with the sixth installment and it was an installment that I didn't mind and quite enjoyed. Much of the cast reprises their roles and Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) reassembles the crew to tackle a group of mercenaries, led by Owen Shaw (Luke Evans). As you know from the last film, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is alive and well but she is now a part of Shaw's posse. So in exchange for Letty and clean records, Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker) agree to help Hobbs take down Shaw.

After a thrilling and enjoyable Fast 5 back in 2011, I expected this sequel to be even more thrilling - and to some extent it was. When you think about the Fast and Furious franchise, you think about great action sequences involving fast car chases and races. It was no different in Fast 6 and the first car chase sequence was quite thrilling and left me anticipating the rest of the movie. It didn't disappoint; there were some good clean action sequences which involved some unbelievable stunts and the longest plane runway you'll ever see in your lifetime. For most parts, some of the action in Fast 6 was a tad bit more riveting than its predecessor.

Gina Carano was added to provide some more "bad-assery" to the film through a female character. She plays Hobbs partner and even though she had some good fighting scenes - when she wasn't fighting, her character felt a bit out of place. Michelle Rodriguez's character was reintegrated into the story and it wasn't the smoothest transition either. Though she was a bad-ass too, there were moments when she seemed awkward and looked uncomfortable. Luke Evans played the menacing bad guy and I believe he did a solid job at it. As for the rest of the crew, they were the usual - they were themselves. The good thing is that the main characters never felt left out or under-used at any point. Like the last film, there was consistent humor throughout. Tyrese and Ludacris provided much of that. As much as I like Tyrese in this franchise, there were times during this movie that I wished he would shut the hell up. While the screenplay has its moments, there were weak points and Carano wasn't given a lot to work with either.

The plot is what prevented this movie from being really great. If you asked me what happened, I couldn't explain to you everything in details. As in, I'm not even sure what the villains true intentions were in this movie - it was never made that clear to me from the get-go. I also blame the weak plot on why Michelle Rodriguez's character seemed so awkward too. Even though they connected it to Fast and Furious 4, her character could have been written back into the story much better. Fast 5 had a much stronger plot. The good thing about Fast 6 is that even though it may get a bit muddled, luckily there are action sequences throughout that are engaging and thrilling so you never really feel bored. There was even an unexpected twist towards the end but I still think we could have gotten a much better plot to go along with these solid action sequences and characters.

The ending of the movie sets it up for another sequel. Overall I prefer Fast 5 but I thought Fast and Furious 6 was still fun and riveting for most parts. Should there be another sequel? No the franchise can end now.


Rating: 7.5/10