Furious 6

 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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