Fast & Furious 6

So The Rock has to get the Fast and Furious gang together to help him stop this guy who’s stealing… I don’t know, something… but his crew is a bunch of high stakes drivers so The Rock needs Toretto and his crew to help, and Letty is back, but she’s with the bad guys now so they want to save her, and Dom has to like talk her out of it “We’re family” he tells her, but she doesn’t listen at first cause she has amnesia and there’s all kinds of car chases and one of them has a TANK involved and then another time they’re on a runway racing a plane, and Vin Diesel gives this guy a flying headbutt and then he and the Rock are fighting dudes together while Paul Walker and everyone are like racing around underneath the plane engines…

It was awesome. 😀

Luke Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) is trying to stop a string of high stakes robberies being perpetrated by a well-trained crew of street drivers. The crew is led by a man named Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), a former special ops soldier turned criminal mastermind. Shaw’s targets are components of a military device which can destroy the power grid of an entire region. In order to stop the thefts and prevent Shaw from being able to complete the device, Hobbs turns to Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). The incentive he offers the retired racer/thief? Information about his ex-girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), who was presumed dead.

Dom reassembles his crew. O’Connor (Paul Walker), Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) Tej Parker (Ludacris), Han (Sung Kang) and Gisele (Gal Gadot). O’Connor has a child now with Dom’s sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), but the crew is a family, too. They can’t ignore the lead on Letty, and O’Connor won’t let Dom go after Letty alone. So, in exchange for the information on Letty and full pardons in the USA, Toretto and his crew agree to help Hobbs stop Shaw.

A high-octane, fist fight full, shoot ’em up stocked film ensues.

Whatever magic touch is required to make viewers suspend their critical functions and just go along for the ride, “Fast & Furious 6” has it in spades. There are multiple moments in this movie where you’ll catch yourself thinking “No &$#%ing wayyyy…”, and yet you’ll realize that you have an enormous smile on your face. People are constantly leaping from moving cars to safety with no repercussions. They race their cars at incredible speeds without crashing. There are fist fights and shoot outs and standoffs and double crosses. Vin Diesel talks in such a low register that you almost can’t even hear him, and The Rock is so jacked up he looks like you could pop him with a pin. Everything you could want in a “Fast & Furious” movie. It’s a ridiculous universe, where outrageous things are commonplace, and yet it’s all so fun and well paced that you just want to go along for the ride.

And what a ride it is. Director Justin Lin has the formula for success for this franchise down cold. The characters are given just enough time to play off each other – cracking wise and trading growls – before launching into a fast paced, fun, fantastic action sequence. Michelle Rodriquez and Gina Carano square off in a fight in a subway station. A street race. Scratch that, multiple street races. There’s a chase on a highway with a tank involved, and of course, the finale on the airport runway that’s so prominently featured in the trailer. Lin keeps the action coming, and it’s phenomenal. Ludicrous? Absolutely. Impossible? Ridiculous? You know it. But fans wouldn’t have it any other way, and neither would I.

Full of perfectly absurd action sequences, larger than life characters, snappy dialogue and a disposable plot, “Fast & Furious 6” is “check your brain at the door” entertainment at its absolute finest.

A

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NOTE: This movie also puts a post title teaser for “Fast & Furious 7” that absolutely has me chomping at the bit to see the next one already. I’m so glad it’s scheduled for 2014 and we don’t have to wait long for it! (although it is sad that Justin Lin wont be at the helm due to the quick turnaround time 😦 )

Daniel Fogarty