Review: Fast & Furious 6 Revs Up My Engine

Tyrese Gibson stars as a flying squirrel.

(Spoilers below, but it’s for a Fast & Furious movie, so it’s not like the story is that big of a deal)

The Fast & Furious franchise is the only series that beats out Rambo in how confusing and messed up the titles are. We are on the sixth installment now and thankfully they’re starting to just number the films so we can all keep them straight, instead of going with titles like Faster & Furiouser or Fastest & Furiousest.

Fast & Furious 6 ( also known as Furious 6, according to the title card) brings back the series’ large cast of characters for another hellaciously fun joy ride. Director Justin Lin and his team of writers did a great job at balancing out the massive number of characters while keeping things fast-paced and straightforward. With so much talent on the screen at one time, it could be difficult to give each person their own time to shine in the action scenes. I mean, we’ve got Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel, Gina Carano, and Michelle Rodriguez, who are all established action actors, and that’s not including the rest of the team, like Paul Walker, Ludacris, Gal Gadot, Sung Kang, and Tyrese Gibson, (I’ll refer to this group as The Toretto Commandos from here on out) who’ve been around in previous films and need time to show off as well.  But Furious 6 manages all of these elements with style, giving each of the Toretto Commandos a specific role to play. One exception to that, however, is Mia (Jordana Brewster), who drew the short straw and gets saddled with taking care of her and Bryan (Paul Walker)’s kid, so she’s missing for 97% of the film and holding a baby for a majority of the time she’s on screen.

BOOM!

The action in Furious 6 is some of the best to hit cinemas in years. Something’s always happening, whether it’s a race, a chase, or a punch to the face. The driving/fight scene choreographers do an awesome job- the car chases feature some complicated weaving, zigging, zagging, ramping, and crashing going on, and the same goes for the fight scenes.

While the action stays in high gear throughout the movie, there’s a section in the middle that drags a bit, but it’s honestly not that much of a drag. Other than that, there are a couple of things I wish the filmmakers had done:

• I wish they had used Gina Carano in more fight scenes. She only gets to fight Michelle Rodriguez twice. Also, did I miss some kind of rule about girls only being able to fight girls? Carano proves she can fight guys in Haywire, and she’s a professional MMA fighter, so let the woman fight!
• I wish the team would have outsmarted the baddies instead of just chasing them the whole time and eventually out-brawling them. The previous films, especially #5 since it was a heist movie, had the team using their brains and coming up with a smart plan that misdirected everyone. The adrenaline glands are here, but Furious 6 is missing some brains.
• I wish Letty had remembered something from the past. She didn’t have to remember her whole life, but ending the film with her saying nothing felt familiar and she still didn’t remember anything is a tiny bit of a letdown considering the amount of work everyone put into recovering this amnesiac lady.

The Fast and Furious team.

Anyone not watching Furious 6 is losing out on fast cars, well choreographed fights, and a slammin’ cast. This entry in this crowded, oddball franchise ups the human element a bit, making you care more about what happens to everyone, and, again, it’s just a balls-out good action movie.

Time Until Action: ~ 0 seconds

Best Fight Scene: This is a tough decision- I mean Han and Roman had a great fight with the dude in the subway station (and by great fight I mean hilariously bad for them since they get their asses kicked). In the end I’ll have to go with Letty (Rodriguez) vs. Riley (Carano) in the subway station. This throwdown is a hard hitting brawl between two people whose goal is to pound on the other until they stop moving. Carano, as always, pulled off some amazing moves and, Rodriguez fought back with her trademark ferocity. The fight also sticks to what each of the characters realistically could do: Riley is obviously a trained officer of the law, and Letty learned how to fight on the streets, so Riley kept to the professional moves, while Letty went wild and then got the hell out of there.

Best Explosion: The big finale takes place on a plane that looks as large as Nebraska, moving down a runway that must run the length of California based on how long they spend there. The Toretto Commandos bring down the plane as it’s about to take off, and it crashes into the pavement in a cavalcade of explosions, then slides to a stop in one gigantic fiery ball.

Action Rating: 5 totally Awesome Souped-up Custom Cars, out of 5!

This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!