Fast & Furious 6

Cast of Characters:
Dominic Toretto - Vin Diesel
Brian O’Connor - Paul Walker
Luke Hobbs - Dwayne Johnson
Letty Ortiz - Michelle Rodriguez
Mia Toretto - Jordana Brewster
Roman Pearce - Tyrese Gibson
Tej Parker - Chris “Ludacris” Bridges
Han Seoul-Oh - Sung Kang
Gisele Yashar - Gal Gadot
Owen Shaw - Luke Evans
Riley - Gina Carano
Arturo Braga - John Ortiz

Director - Justin Lin
Screenplay - Chris Morgan
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action and mayhem throughout, some sexuality and language

In 2001, The Fast and the Furious was released starring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. Fast forward to today, twelve years later, and we now have the sixth installment in the near two billion dollar grossing action film franchise, Fast & Furious 6.

      Following the events that took place in their successful Rio heist, the “Fast and Furious” gang led by Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) have retired. Dominic lives with his girlfriend outside the states. Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker) and Dom’s sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) have had a son together. Both Gisele (Gal Gadot) and Han Seoul-Oh (Sung Kang) have moved to Hong Kong, and Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej Parker (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges) live it up “lifestyles of the rich and famous” style.

      After a Russian military convoy is destroyed, Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and his partner Riley (Gina Carano) track down Dom, requesting his help along with the help of Dom’s team. They believe former British Special Forces soldier Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) was the mastermind behind the recent attack and Dom has what it takes to bring him down. Dom at first refuses, that is until Hobbs shows him photos of his former girlfriend Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), whom Dom thought was dead. Dom is able to bring together the entire crew and they all agree to help if and only if Hobbs is able to grant them all full pardons.

      I’ll be honest. I hate The Fast and Furious films, so it was hard for me to go into this film without being slightly biased against it. That being said, I found this film to be the best of the series. Whoa, hold on. Slow your roll, Benjamin. Don’t get me wrong. This film has its flaws, quite a few of them actually. The acting’s what you’d expect from this film, bland with a side order of Vin Diesel sounding like a battered drunk, muttering through his dialogue for an hour and a half to two hours. Luke Evans as the main villain is about as intimidating as the Strawberry Shortcake doll, and at times the dialogue is pure cheese, particularly whenever the gang goes from committing high stake felonies to sipping back cold ones by the barbeque, talking about the importance and value of family. That being said, I would never walk into a film like this expecting acting out of Scorsese film and a David Mamet script. You’ll be sorely let down if you do. To its credit, there are a few exciting action sequences by director Justin Lin that are so over the top you have to believe that Lin and Co. this time around wanna make the film a bit more self-aware of just how ludicrous it really is. Tyrese Gibson and Chris Bridges both provide some dependable comic relief at times, and the very end of the film provides a glimpse at the next villain that no one could see coming from a mile away. Yes, there will be a seventh film, and at this point, hell, why not?

      While this is far from good and I really can’t emphasize that enough, I also felt it's far from the garbage that were its predecessors in the series. In spite of all the flaws, there’s still enough for me to give this a mild recommendation, which is a lot more than I can say about the previous films and a lot more than I was expecting to give this one. It'd seem kinda odd for me to tell you just skip the other five films and watch this one, but continuity be damned. I give Fast & Furious 6 a C (★★½).