Directed by:
Justin LinScreenplay:
Chris MorganCinematography:
Stephen F. WindonComposer:
Lucas VidalCast:
Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Luke Evans, Tyrese Gibson, Gina Carano, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Ludacris, Jordana Brewster (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
Since Dom (Diesel) and Brian's (Walker) Rio heist toppled a kingpin's empire and left their crew with $100 million, our heroes have scattered across the globe. But their inability to return home and living forever on the lam have left their lives incomplete. Meanwhile, Hobbs (Johnson) has been tracking an organization of lethally skilled mercenary drivers across 12 countries, whose mastermind (Evans) is aided by a ruthless second-in-command revealed to be the love Dom thought was dead, Letty (Rodriguez). The only way to stop the criminal outfit is to outmatch them at street level, so Hobbs asks Dom to assemble his elite team in London. Payment? Full pardons for all of them so they can return home and make their families whole again. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (14)
Lin has hit his limits, given that situations involving the characters and their emotional interactions elude him, taking his own feet from under him and in the final decision-making, he is unable to offer more than self-sacrificing glances and theatrical gestures. That’s assuming he doesn't fire off any major action bombs, but rather a still technically brilliant arrangement that has since last time abandoned any semblance of reality and ventured into the sci-fi genre (without a major highlight, moreover). This necessarily means a rough and painful fall that's ultimately hampered by the cast where everyone has parked themselves into their roles in a way that feels like they were just born for them.
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Due to the trajectory of the franchise and its concept of a team of criminals as a family, placing the high-octane action in a melodramatic context was probably inevitable. Melodramatic conventions are the reason why the film ends on the second attempt, why it has problems with rhythm and why the characters conform to psychological formulas at the level of three-year-olds. The film’s family theme prevents it from getting out of first gear, as every big action scene is followed by blather about important values, which is only a substitute for a more sophisticated plot. The only one who manages to reflect the obvious melodrama is the main villain, who, of all the film’s characters, is the most capable of rational thought. In the context of a film driven by illogic and sentiment, he represents an anomaly that must be eliminated. ___ The film’s obvious objective and the approximate way of achieving it are introduced shortly after the nostalgic opening credits (which logically and primarily accentuate the “team” level of the previous films), and only after it is achieved does the dully straightforward narrative formula undergo a slight modification: Toretto’s crew comes up with a way to get Shaw. But Shaw is smarter and avoids capture; as he does so, several expensive cars explode and a few anonymous civilians die. So Toretto’s crew comes up with another plan, during the execution of which more expensive cars explode and more anonymous civilians die. Instead of the gradual development of motifs and well-thought-out provision of information, the cards are rashly laid out on the table and the crew rushes pell-mell toward their objective (not even the two small “female” story surprises, one cheap, the other stupid, manage to in any way alter the course of events). The film is even more narratively “disintegrated” than Fast Five, but it doesn’t allow us to watch it undisturbed in a relaxing “standby” mode – enjoyment of the attractions is disrupted by the frequent dialogue, which is always serious about everything. A crucial problem of the film consists in the action scenes themselves, as they are fragmented by numerous unnecessary cuts and peppered with obvious digital tricks (the only car chase in Jack Reacher is directed far more clearly than any given chase in this film). __ Whereas the women in the film are dangerous, treacherous, defenceless, recovering from amnesia or just there to look good, the men were assigned the roles of invaluable protectors, capable lovers and excellent drivers. Fast & Furious 6 is just one big guyish pose, a film that too obviously displays its confidence in itself and the values that it promotes: if you have enough money, physical strength or weapons (or, ideally, a combination thereof), you can afford to go up against practically anyone. But you mustn’t put your family in danger. The relativisation of the villain and protagonist roles by means of self-reflexively pointing out the similarities between the teams facing each other (and whose members will fight each other more or less according to how Roman pairs them off) is ultimately just another false gesture with which Lin tries to conceal the fact that this time he bet more on big muscles, empty slogans and bombastic rhetoric than this 130-minute genre flick can bear. I don’t deny that it’s still a pleasure, but it’s much more of the guilty variety after Fast Five, whose testosterone-fuelled bombast was still generally acceptable. 70%
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Modern action. A dynamically directed, testosterone-packed, stunt-filled blockbuster bullshit that can only be enjoyed without reservations by an individual who has never sat in a car and has no idea about the insurmountable power of Earth's gravity or rustic logic. While the fifth one had a better and more sophisticated story and more imaginatively benefited from the presence of the hyper-cool Dwayne Johnson, this one offers a story of the most primitive kind, overblown action (driving around town with a dumpster is still an everyday criminal routine) and a powdery chemistry between characters we simply can't worry about in the ridiculously calculated climactic scenes. But it still looks very good, despite the insane runtime there's always something going on and Michelle Rodriguez is so hot that you simply can't help but cry guilty satisfaction at the end... 65%
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The mechanical, hastily put together screenplay of Fast & Furious 6 is closer to Die Hard 5 than to Fast & Furious 5. Meeting, action, meeting, action, meeting, action and so on. The meetings are not as funny as they would like to be and the action is comically exaggerated and not easy enough to follow, given that Fast & Furious is the most successful action series of today. Furthermore, the sixth instalment does not take place in an attractive exotic environment like the fifth one does and its story has detours that make it unnecessarily protracted and less dynamic (the visit in the jail, Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez racing), and we’ve already seen all of its highlights in the trailers.
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A bit more spectacular again than no. 5. The title sequence nicely summarizes all past parts (except part 3) and throws us into the luxury life that the brand new millionaires Torreto/O'Connor enjoy the very full. There’s even a new addition to the family. Then Hobbs comes along and spoils everything with the photo. Then comes destruction, action, fights both male and female and, as usual, lots of fabulous cars and the phenomenal more-than-chases that seem to break the laws of physics. They are basically three really long and sophisticated, action scenes filmed the old way where sheet steel and people get dented. There’s even a TANK! Diesel and Lin egged each other on and stepped on the gas. Also the groundwork for the last (?) part is full of promise and at last justifies the making of the bland part 3.
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