Film Review: Fast & Furious 6

Film review by Tom Hunt

Note: The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of RetoxMagazine.com

It's Fast, It's Furious – It's Fast & Furious 6

Fast & Furious 6 Film Review

How do you review a film with an endless runway, humans flying through the air, and Paul Walker's big, beautiful eyes? Leave your reservations at the door for Fast & Furious 6, sit back and just take in all of it's glorious, over the top action, while allowing some creative licensing for the writers.

Pictured: 'Fast & Furious 6' film poster.

A franchise that was once simply about street racing (do you remember that? It seems so long ago now), has suddenly become the drivers version of The Expendables. It's easy to throw insults in it's direction, but it does what the trailer offers – which is actually quite rare these days. We're not off to see a film in which we'll discuss it's inner works while at a sophisticated wine & cheese party, it's the film where we'll say "dude, dude!! The Rock looked jacked in that film", and to be fair, he did.

The film kicks off with a pre-credits scene – Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian (Paul 'Blue Eyes' Walker) are racing through the streets. They arrive at their destination, a hospital where Mia (Jordana Brewster) is in labour – Brian's about to be a daddy! Dom lets Brian know after his child is born their old lives are done with. We then meet up with Agent Hobbs (Dwaine Johnson) arriving to see another heist has been pulled off, using the line "there's only 1 team in the world who could pull this off", cue him walking into a room with a big baldy in a white tank facing away from us – leading us to believe it's Dom – it's not. Dom and the gang are living a 'quiet' life, enjoying all the luxuries that £100 million brings you. Hobbs finds Dom, who "wasn't hiding", and tells him he needs his help, and that Dom will want to help him once he see's what he's got – it's a picture of Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) – she's meant to be dead! Dom assembles his team, and reluctantly gets Brian involved, who's happy being a father. The team are trying to track down Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), who's running a team of highly skilled racers. So the crew have their first run in with Shaw's entourage, and realise how in-over their heads they really are. With lots of friend-like-banter and explosions, the film is one big chase through London, and across Europe.

While it was fun seeing the film hit the mean-streets (as mean as Trafalgar Square can be) of London, it all seems a little...dull. There's not a whole lot of decent street racing and car chases you can have in London. The streets are narrow and boring – and while there is an element of suspension of disbelief, which you need to have in these films, London roads are congested! You could barely make 40mph, let alone into the 100's. The Fast & Furious franchise seems to be growing and growing – who'd have thought we'd have 6 already – with no sign of slowing down. It might not be to everyone's taste, but it's successful and the franchise is attracting bigger and bigger stars, so they'll be here for a while yet.

While the film can get a little over the top (even by it's own standards), there's actually some good moments in there. A lot of the comedy comes from Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges), and the code of protecting your family no matter what – the ethos Dom instills in everyone around him – is still one of the focal points to the story. It'll be a shame that Han (Sung Kang) – a personal favourite, since he makes eating snacks looks so cool and mellow - won't feature in the future instalments, as the past two films were set before Tokyo Drift and the next one now catching up with the timeline. But just like Fast & Furious, and in Fast & Furious 6, we might just get to see a few familiar faces coming back to the franchise – let's just hope no more cameos from Rita Ora!