Fast & Furious 6 (2013)

The Fast and the Furious movies are a rare example of a franchise that has actually grown in popularity  and acclaim the further away its gotten from the initial premise. What began as a series about underground racing has turned into an overblown destruct-a-thon that is more interested in breaking as many panes of glass as possible than finding excuses to have people race. But oh, what a glorious destruct-a-thon it is. Two years ago the franchise got a shot of adrenaline in the form of Fast Five, a ridiculous heist thriller that succeeded thanks to some brilliantly choreographed, over-the-top action and strangely captivating scenes of muscular meat heads standing around a table talking tough. It spent a long time setting up a ridiculously complex robbery, and then threw that plan out the window in favor of a chase through the streets of Rio in which two cars attempt to haul a gigantic safe out of town. It was nuts in the best possible way.

One of the best things that can be said about Fast & Furious 6, which is mysteriously referred to as Furious 6 in the title card, is that it completely understands what made Fast Five so absurdly entertaining. It continues the series’ trend of focusing on heists and almost completely throws out the street racing angle with the exception of a couple scenes that only exist so people can’t complain about there not being any. It is also a movie that lives to create “whoa” moments and little else. There is a slight regression to the mean in places—some stunts rely on too much CGI, and one late action setpiece is disappointingly incomprehensible thanks to excessive shaky-cam and subpar editing—but there are moments when Fast & Furious 6 is able to match and occasionally surpass the heights of its immediate predecessor. It is a film meant to play in front of large, raucous crowds ready to hoot and holler at every new development. Based on the reaction of my audience, they succeeded.

The film begins with the birth of the daughter of Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) and Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster), but don’t you think for a second the movie is going to spend its time worrying about Brian’s struggles with fatherhood and all that nonsense. Alas, Mia and the baby are cast off from the movie but quick in favor of a much more exciting battle of elite criminals. While investigating a robbery in London, Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) discovers that the crew responsible is led by Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), and includes someone believed to be long dead: Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez, reprising her role). Hobbs decides to get the help of Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and the rest of the Fast Five crew, minus those Puerto Rican brothers, in chasing Shaw down. One notable addition comes in the form of Haywire’s Gina Carano, who plays Hobbs’ new partner Riley.

As was the case in Fast Five, the best scenes in Fast & Furious 6 are the ones without the over-the-top CGI. Many of the characters here, in particular Diesel and Johnson, have essentially become muscular God-men who can do whatever they want without regard for personal injury or, you know, gravity. If I had a dollar for every time someone jumped from one moving vehicle onto another moving vehicle at high speed, I’d probably have enough money to get a combo meal somewhere. Unfortunately, most of these stunts are done with the aid of CGI rather than practically. I’m not trying to wish harm upon my fellow man, but there’s nothing impressive about these stunts when green screen is used so heavily. One “stunt” in particular here—which comes late—is just ridiculous, and not in a good way. There are no thrills to be found when it’s clearly a cartoon. There was CGI galore in Fast Five too, but it didn’t quite bother me as much as it did in some crucial scenes here. It was probably necessary considering some of the insane events called for in the script, but if that is the case it may have been wiser to take things down a notch and shoot it all practically. A 'B+' stunt done in real life is way more impressive than an 'A+' stunt made entirely on computers. At least director Justin Lin is able to integrate it reasonably well into the world and keep events from losing all physical weight.

Those complaints aside, this film is still far more reliant on doing it the old-fashioned way than most action franchises. One of the most mesmerizing scenes in Fast Five­ was the hand-to-hand combat between Johnson and Diesel, and in this latest installment there are moments like that to spare. In particular, Carano is once again able to stand out from the pack and build on her Haywire success. In a world full of fit tough guy types, she often comes off as the most intimidating. They do something with her character late that doesn’t make a lick of sense, and is kind of disappointing considering her potential going forward, but when she’s in charge she is in charge. On a related note, those who were fans of Johnson in Five are almost certainly going to keep on loving him here; his macho, metaphor-filled dialogue continues to delight. It certainly says something when the two best performers in your movie are a former pro wrestler and a former mixed martial artist. Only they are able to stand out while everyone else is just a toy for Lin to play with.

And play with them he does. Despite the lack of actual street racing, Lin is never more comfortable than when he puts his characters behind the wheel of some kind of motorized vehicle… or tank. Make no mistake: Fast & Furious 6 is not a great movie, but it’s fun in the same way that Fast Five is fun. These may be two of the best bad movies of all time, but I don’t mean that in the sense that they are so bad they are good. I mean that in the sense that they are simultaneously awesome and terrible in ways that no other movies have ever been before. This is a franchise that appeals to the 12-year-old boy in all of us, and so long as you have one of those it’s hard to imagine you’ll be let down. It’s loud, chaotic, dumb and at times shoddily put together, but it’s also a howlingly good time. The worst thing about it is that it’s Lin’s final Fast movie at the helm. This series may not be the same without him.

Grade: B+

P.S. - Can someone who sees Fast & Furious 6 this weekend find a way to calculate the length of the runway in the climax? My guess is 25 miles.