Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) enlists the help of his former
quarry Dom (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker) and their crew to aid in taking
down a dangerous crime lord, Shaw (Luke Evans), who plans to steal military
hardware and sell it on the black market. They accept in exchange for full
pardons once they learn that one of Shaw’s accomplices is Letty (Michelle
Rodriguez), who they thought was dead.
As much as I enjoyed the fifth film, I have to say that this
follow-up was a little disappointing. It basically follows the same path that
its predecessor tread, only this time the writing isn’t nearly as good and the
story is needlessly stretched out to bursting point. Long story short, it’s the
same movie only amped up to the Nth degree.
Writers Chris Morgan and Gary Scott Thompson didn’t seem to
be trying very hard when they copy/pasted the Fast Five script here. Al the beats are the same, none of the
characters really change or evolve and the project has a lazy feeling about it.
One of their more ridiculous changes is that the Letty character has amnesia
and doesn’t remember any of her old crew. It was a bad decision on their part
and it’s so freaking hokey when you’re watching this development play out on
screen. They also wrote yet another horribly clichéd and boring villain in
Shaw. He’s not threatening nor is he frightening. He’s just sort of there. Cole
Hauser’s baddie in 2 Fast 2 Furious
was more intense, and that’s saying something. Although I was happy to see that
they finally decided to correct their timeline jumping (parts 4, 5 and 6 take
place before part 3, and now the series has caught up with the events of that
film at last).
Justin Lin returns for his fourth and final directing gig in
this series, and while his track record was pretty hit or miss with me I have
to say that I’m sad to see him go. He brings a great energy to each film
regardless of its quality, and he basically turned this franchise into the
money making juggernaut that it is today. What’s truly disappointing is that
you can tell as you watch Furious 6
that he’s tired of these films and is ready to move on. There’s nothing truly
awe inspiring or overly exciting in his stylistic choices here as there were in
Fast Five. The movie just kind of
slogs along, going through the motions with a random action scene thrown in to
keep the audience from falling asleep, and insures that there will be yet
another film to follow.
The acting is about as good as you’d expect. Vin Diesel
pretty much IS his character of Dom
Toretto (as he is with Riddick as well) and he manages to make his gruff, yet
sensitive, criminal a joy to watch. You can say all you want about how cool the
cars are or how wild the action is – Diesel is the main draw here and he never
disappoints. Pairing him with Dwayne Johnson was probably the smartest move the
casting department has ever made for any film in the series. These two are
great together and have a fun chemistry. I hope the filmmakers continue to
include his character of Hobbs in future installments. Paul Walker does his
best Keanu Reeves impersonation, Tyrese Gibson is still slightly annoying and
always “hungry”, Michelle Rodriguez might as well just legally change her name to
“Tough Chick”, Jordana Bewster is fine as the sassy damsel in distress and Chris
‘Ludacris’ Bridges makes for a better comic relief sidekick than Tyrese. I
really enjoyed Sung Kang and Gal Gadot together. They have a fun relationship
and they both are decent actors. As much as I like Gina Carano (she is FINE!) I
sadly report that her acting chops have not improved since Haywire. It’s sad because if she stepped up her game a notch or two
she could be a great leading female action star. Her fight scenes are ultra
rad. Luke Evans tries his best to inject some life into his DOA antagonist, but
sometime the writing works against you and treading water is the only option.
Such is the case here.
I know I’m making the movie sound pretty bad. It’s not. It’s
entertaining and fun, if not a little stupid and farfetched like all the films
in this series (was that airstrip 30 fucking miles long?!). I was just
expecting more and I didn’t get it. There are some cool callbacks (the villain
from Fast & Furious popping up in
one scene made me smile), the action is rad and the women are smoking’ hot. And
the setup for the next film… HOLY
SHIT! But when the film ended I realized that I had paid to see the
same movie twice, and that I probably should have just stayed home and watched
my BluRay of Fast Five instead. It’s
one of the better films in the franchise (I’d rank it as my third favorite),
but I hope that some new writers are brought in to change things up for part 7.
With an awesome villain already lined up they had better make the film as bad
ass as they possibly can or I fear the series will go out with a whimper.
3 out of 5
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