Posted By Iain McNally on May 25, 2013

Seemingly taking off right where Fast 5 ended, Furious 6 (as the title card refers  to the film) opens with Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian (Paul Walker) racing each other once again, this time to get to the birth of Brian’s son with Mia (Jordana Brewster),  Dom’s sister (why they didn’t accompany her to the hospital in the first place escapes me).  Just before a credit sequence that visually sums up the series so far, Dom reminds Brian that their old life is done, but thankfully this doesn’t stick, otherwise this would be a very dull movie.

Living modestly, yet comfortably on the proceeds from the previous film, the only luxury “Team Furious” lacks is the ability to return home to the US, due to all the outstanding warrants for their arrest. Handily DSS agent Hobbs (Dwayne Jonson/The Rock), now ably accompanied by Gina Carano and a less ridiculous looking beard than in the preceding film, has come up against a gang of similarly talented drivers, led by Shaw (Luke Evans), who have been running military smash and grab strikes throughout the world. The Rock (is there any point even referring to him by his character’s name anymore?) requires the assistance of a similarly gifted team. With the promise of pardons all round, along with news that Dom’s old flame Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), presumed dead after Fast & Furious (film number 4) is running with this new crew, he’s got just the motivation to get the band from Fast 5 back together and on the road again, with the exception of Tego Leo (Tego Calderon) and Rico Santos (Don Omar) for some reason.

After a quick, funny montage gathering the troops, the team is assembled in London, the set-up is out of the way and it’s time to let the vehicular mayhem ensue.

Not one of Vin’s better ideas

Shaw’s team are going after the military parts to build a super weapon/macguffin and his secret weapons are a pair of heavily modified armoured F1 style racers, which double as mobile ramps to launch unsuspecting oncoming traffic at any pursuers, as well as some “chip guns” which handily override any electronics in the Furious team’s modern cars.

What we then get are a number of chase and race sequences in London as the team try to hunt down Shaw, as well as the gang amicably goofing off, including some fun scenes featuring Ludacris and The Rock (or “Samoan Thor” according to Ludacris’s phone) securing cars from a stuffy English car dealer, nearly everyone joking about Roman’s (Tyrese Gibson) giant forehead and cheapness, more flirting between Han (Sung Kang) and Gisele (Gal Gadot), some pretty bad-ass fights scenes, and a baffling decision to send Paul Walker on a pointless undercover mission to jail back in the US in the middle of the film, only for Dom to dismiss most of the results of the trip as soon as Walker rejoins the rest of the group.

Team Furious Assemble!

Unfortunately, probably due to the necessities of shooting in London, or the difficulties in trying to fake London elsewhere, as they did using Puerto Rico to double for Rio in Fast 5, most these car sequences take place at night and as a result are slightly reduced in their impact. Director Justin Lin’s camera tries to lavish the same amount of love on London as it did on Rio, but despite all the sun dappled scenes, London is  a very different city as evidenced by the cast still need to sport nice warm jackets throughout. A night-time race between Diesel and Rodriguez through the heart of London also suffers for anyone who’s actually been there, as the almost nonexistent levels of traffic shown on Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Street are far more unrealistic than any of the more over the top stunts later in the film.

Those outrageous tank and plane chases, shown in the trailer, occur late in the film and in Spain and don’t take you out of the movie too much, as they are still shot in the same semi-realistic manner as the stunts in the previous film (well, as realistic as two cars dragging a giant vault though the streets of Rio can be considered). Whoever directs Fast & Furious 7 (apparently Lin won’t be returning) however, faces a daunting challenge in coming up with adversaries for the team to face, without having to resort to equipping their cars with guns and James Bond style gadgets, that would ruin the tone of the franchise. This film just about gets away with excessive use of grappling hooks and winches in this movie.

Not pictured: Realism

What really triggered the eye rolls was a series of ludicrous leaps by numerous members of the cast from, and between, moving vehicles which strain the audiences suspension of disbelief. Compared to these, the sight of a number of cars dangling off what looks like an Antonov An-225 style plane seems almost plausible.

Any action film that provides the delights of Michelle Rodriguez and Gina Carano beating the tar out of each other in a tube station, Tyrese Gibson and Sung Kang fighting each other to avoid hand to hand combat with a very capable henchman, and The Rock and Vin Diesel teaming up against a man bigger than both of them put together (man mountain Kim Kobold) can’t be all bad however, and there is plenty of levity throughout that keeps the film ticking over.

A third act fake-out (which The Rock seems to take as a reason to change into his Roadblock costume from G.I. JOE: Retaliation), a plane chase on what must be the longest runway in history (seriously they’re chasing the plane for what seems like 10-15 minutes) keeps us going until the required happy ending, although not all the team will be returning for Fast 7.

Having heard about the convoluted internal history of the series (the third film, Tokyo Drift takes place AFTER the fourth, fifth and sixth episodes  in the series) I was pretty interested in seeing in how Sung Kang’s Han would end up, as SPOILERS! he died in Tokyo Drift, and has been teasing about finally going to Tokyo in the films since his re-introduction in Fast & Furious.

Just like the Eva Mendes cameo that set up the Letty storyline for this film, a sequence that takes place just before the credits finally ends Han’s storyline in addition to launching an all new one, with the appearance of a very well known action star that had the audience I watched the film with, squealing in delight.

After swearing off  these films for so long, Fast 5 converted me to a petrol head and Fast 6 has kept me interested and energised for Fast 7! I can’t wait to see Vin Diesel and the Rock squaring off against you-know-who in the next one.

Check out our other reviews of Fast & Furious 6:

Dave Howlett’s Review

Michelle Ealey’s Review

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Categories: Movies, Reviews
Tags: Antonov An-225, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Fast5, Gal Gadot, Gina Carano, Jordana Brewster, London, Michelle Rodriguez, Oxford Street, Paul Wallker, Piccadilly Circus, Sung Kang, Tokyo Drift, Tyrese Gibson, Vin Diesel