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Fast & Furious 6
It’s hard to
believe that twelve years ago, “The Fast & The Furious” first hit the
screens. It was a runaway hit, capturing the imagination and fantasies of
bonafide and wannabe street-racers the world over, and turned it’s young cast
into big stars. In a nice tribute to the five previous films that have
entertained us for a decade, “Fast & Furious 6” starts off with a montage
of the major scenes from each previous instalment. It’s amazing how much can be
captured in just a few minutes, and the opening credits kick off this latest
instalment in fine fashion.
Fast 6 doesn’t
mess around, getting straight into proceedings. I’ll take it that you’ve seen
the other films or at least know the history of the series. Brian and Mia
welcome the arrival of their first child and Dom has hooked up with (cop) from
Fast Five. They live in secluded silence in sunny Spain.
The rest of the crew are scattered across the globe, enjoying the riches of
their steal from Rio.
Meanwhile, in Russia,
some bad dudes are up to no good. Super Agent Hobbs (Johnson) is on the case and
comes up with a strategy to stop the criminals “You’ve gotta catch wolves with
wolves”. Somehow, he tracks Dom down to his beachfront hideaway, asking for his
help to bring down the bad dudes. Dom isn’t interested initially, until Hobbs
shows him a photograph of Letty – taken a week ago and apparently involved in
the recent crimes. Feeling like she might in fact still be alive, Dom takes the
offer with Brian in tow, and rounds up his crew for their latest job.
Moving swiftly
and slickly, the team convene on London
with their new assignment; capture Owen Shaw – the bad dude. Dom, Brian and the
team offer to help in exchange for full pardons, letting them walk away free
from their long list of crimes. Dom also offers his loyalty to Hobbs
and the mission if he can also walk away with Letty, despite how far she’s
fallen into the crimes of Shaw’s operations.
That’s about
it in terms of plot, as Fast 6 then hits the road with all wheels in full
motion and doesn’t stop for a minute. Even at over two hours in length, it all
just flies by because it moves so fast and you’ll just be having so much fun.
The series has
certainly taken on blockbuster status with its massive box office turnover to
date, and the transition from street racing film to heist film has been firmly
established. Now the Fast & Furious series is just pure action and thrills.
So does that mean all story and character development has gone out the window?
Not entirely. The characters of Dom, Brian, Mia and Letty are still strong and
three dimensional as they were in the first film, and the actors have grown
into their characters well.
The Former Rock
plays his role as Hobbs just as well as he did in Fast Five, but where he was
the big surprise and elevator of scenes in the last film, Hobbs this time just
blends into each scene, looking like he was always a part of the series since
the beginning. Speaking of which, Hobbs
and Dom share an entertaining scene on board a large plane towards the end of
the film where they take on of the bad dudes that is almost as big as Hobbs
and Dom put together. There was so much testosterone coming off the screen I
think I grew a six pack just watching it.
What else can
I say without revealing too much else about the film? It delivers exactly what
you expect; fast cars, thrills, action, humour and stupendous situations. The
film really does defy reality for most of its running time, but isn’t that what
movies are supposed to do? Leave you brain in your car, jump into this car and
enjoy the ride. It’s great fun.
Oh, I almost
forgot. If you’ve paid close attention to the series you will know that the
third instalment, Tokyo Drift, is actually set after the events in Fast &
Furious 6. Stick around during the closing credits for a special scene that
takes us back to the streets of Japan, and an awesome twist to a previous event
in the series that will get you excited and cleverly sets up the possible plot
for Fast & Furious 7 – yes, there will be more and you can expect it as
early as this time next year. Bring it on I say!
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