Through the end of May, I’m looking back at the nine movies of the “Fast & Furious” franchise, watching most of them for the first time. Next up is the sixth movie, “Fast & Furious 6” (2013):
STRENGTHS
The fourth entry from director Justin Lin and writer Chris Morgan has a deliciously gonzo ending wherein the team tries to stop a huge military-grade airplane from taking off by grappling onto it with their vehicles’ winches. And that’s not even the most entertaining action sequence. As much as “F&F6” is about spectacle, it manages to be a solid character piece, featuring good moments in the Dom-Letty and Han-Gisele relationships. And the dark yet clear cinematography in London is a nice distinguishing feature.
WEAKNESSES
As usual, the “F&F” reality is different from the real world. In this world, career criminals can get pardons for one good deed. The question of whether car crashes can be deadly or are something to brush off is also inconsistent. It can be jarring when a viewer doesn’t know whether real-world rules will be observed or not. And as fun as that tarmac battle is, I’d have to watch it a second time to understand all the logistics.
“Fast & Furious 6” (2013)
Director: Justin Lin
Writer: Chris Morgan
Stars: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson
COOLEST CHARACTER
Dom (Vin Diesel). Diesel can play this role in his sleep now, but I appreciate that he doesn’t phone it in. “F&F6” gives Dom huge emotional stakes – learning his girl is still alive, but doesn’t remember him, and trying to bring her back into the fold. Diesel plays all this without forgetting he’s in a huge action movie. The actor is just the right amount of cool.
WOMEN’S ROLE
Gisele (Gal Gadot) goes out with an epic hero moment, letting go of boyfriend Han’s hand in order to shoot the bad guy sneaking up behind him – but it results in a fall to her death. What a way for Gadot to head off to her Wonder Woman duties. New mom Mia (Jordana Brewster) is briefly in the damsel-in-distress role, but after she gets rescued, she helps in the final tarmac showdown.
Riley (Gina Carano) is a both a strong sidekick for Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and the object of a fun twist where it turns out she’s the mole inside the group. Carano has action chops, and it’s cool to see a woman follow The Rock’s path from fighting sports to action movies. Meanwhile, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) does the opposite switcheroo – going from the bad guys back to the good. Among the tipoffs that her employer is a bad dude: the fact that he gleefully crushes innocent drivers with a tank. Well observed, Letty.
VILLAIN
Shaw (Luke Evans). He’s the first worldwide uber-villain of the saga. I like his man-to-man chat with Dom in a dark and empty parking lot where they discuss their relative moral values. In the long run, Shaw’s biggest value might be in paving the way for his vengeful brother (Jason Statham), the more famous Shaw in this saga.
TOO GOOD FOR THIS MOVIE
Sung Kang as Han. He’s been too good for this franchise for a while now. But now that Han has been killed off (as seen for the second time), it really sinks in. I’m tempted to look up Kang’s resume and follow him into other films – something I can’t say about anyone else in the cast.
MOST THRILLING SEQUENCE
Shaw apprehends a military tank and literally crushes the hapless traffic on a highway in Spain. I’m not clear on why he steals the tank – I think maybe the maguffin happens to be inside it – but this sequence is so stunning that I give the filmmakers a pass.
THAT’S RIDICULOUS
The movie is officially called “Fast & Furious 6,” but the title card says “Furious 6.” C’mon, marketing team, that’s pretty sloppy for a huge blockbuster film; pick a title.
In the opening chase through London, Roman (Tyrese Gibson) flips his car several times through a store front. The next time we see him, he’s totally unscathed. But this film eventually links back up with the events of “Tokyo Drift” – made back when car crashes could kill these people – and Han dies in a relatively mundane wreck.
Brian (Paul Walker) risks going to prison for life by sneaking into the U.S. to talk to Braga (John Ortiz), the drug kingpin from the fourth movie, on the off chance that Braga can tell him something about Shaw. Brian attains no useful information at all for his hugely risky efforts.
Dom will walk away and leave Shaw to his scheme if Shaw simply turns Letty over to him. Shaw refuses to do so, even though Letty is not a crucial part of his team. Later, when she voluntarily returns to Dom, Shaw doesn’t care.
The U.S. government grants the whole team of career criminals pardons because of their work in capturing a terrorist weapon and killing a supervillain, and – perhaps even more inexplicable – Elena (Elsa Pataky) is back in good standing with the DSS despite shacking up with one of the world’s most wanted thieves.
Of course it’s absurd that Letty is still alive and that she has amnesia. This type of memory loss doesn’t happen in reality. But by this franchise’s standards, this is pretty low on the list of silly things.
CHEESIEST DIALOGUE
Roman: “Better make sure you get her a big rock, man, ’cause she doesn’t look like she’ll be that easily impressed. And if it’s not a big rock, you better be big somewhere else. You know what I’m talking about?”
Han: “That’s why all your girlfriends wear so much bling, huh?”
FAMILY VALUES
Hobbs says Dom can name his price for the maguffin at story’s end, but all he wants is his criminal record wiped clean and to move back into his Los Angeles home from the first movie. It’s both homey and homely, and feels right even to the amnesiac Letty. It’s cheesy, and the “family” talk in these films is overdone, but I have to admit the driveway barbecue is a warm final scene.
FINAL THOUGHTS/EXPECTATIONS
In a close call, I rate “F&F6” as the best entry up to this point. It has no less than three outstanding action sequences. The screenplay is objectively dumb when compared to sharper action franchises such as “Mission: Impossible,” but it moves fast enough that a viewer doesn’t have a chance to dwell on it – and I can grasp enough of the plot to understand the stakes. It finds good stuff for everyone to do and boasts a solid villain whose ticked-off brother will likely drag our crew into another adventure in the next entry.
Schedule of reviews:
Saturday, May 16: “The Fast and the Furious” (2001)
Sunday, May 17: “2 Fast 2 Furious” (2003)
Wednesday, May 20: “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” (2006)
Thursday, May 21: “Fast & Furious” (2009)
Saturday, May 23: “Fast Five” (2011)
Sunday, May 24: “Fast & Furious 6” (2013)
Wednesday, May 27: “Furious 7” (2015)
Thursday, May 28: “The Fate of the Furious” (2017)
Saturday, May 30: “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” (2019)