Fast and Furious 6 (2013)

It’s been a dozen years since The Fast and the Furious was released to immense audience popularity and critical complaints about its immaturity. Five sequels later, Fast and Furious 6 isn’t much more mature, but it’s still a heck of an action movie. Sliding even farther away from the theme of underground street racing than its predecessor, the decent Fast Five, Furious 6 involves itself with the more serious business of the gang from the other movies, including series regulars Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, trying to get their names in good with the law so that they can settle down. Also part of this plan is the retrieval of the character from the first film played by Michelle Rodriguez, long thought to be dead. And there’s lots and lots of chasing, fighting and other assorted action.

That’s the whole point of the movie anyway, isn’t it? Who cares what the story is in a movie like this when there’s action to be had? That is partly true, though, after six films, this franchise should have us caring at least a little about its ongoing storyline. I won’t go so far as to say that I actually did, but I do think the director of the last four pictures, Justin Lin, does. He brings a certain flair to the movies that is exciting and makes you forget about the timeline. Again, the story is relatively insignificant to begin with, but what plot points are provided are included with pizzazz. Having Rodriguez return to the cast is a welcome addition, as she has a better screen presence than the rest of the cast, most of whom are largely bland.

The real stars of the film, though, are the cars. The action scenes are executed masterfully. The potential boredom of extended car chases, due to their inevitable limitations, is overcome by the slickness of the direction and the literal magic of which these vehicles are capable. Gravity and logic are defied throughout, as pretty much every car that is thrown from the road proceeds to bounce off the road and other cars and then roll endlessly down the flat highway. According to the laws of cinema science, this would be silly if one car bounced and another car crashed, but every car bounces. By the same rule, when two characters are flung into the air, catch each other and land to safety, it is only acceptable because no precedent exists to suggest that they are not capable of this action. In fact, it is backed up later when Dwayne Johnson jumps off the ground and flies through the air under his own power to attack a villain. I admire the series’ consistency.

I enjoyed Fast and Furious 6 as much as I probably ever will enjoy a car chase movie. The Fast and Furious series is generally in a class of its own. It’s not as stupid as most other action movies are, but it’s not entirely smart either. This is a fun movie, though, and if you enjoy the others, you will definitely enjoy this. I will repeat what I said about Fast Five a couple years ago: a roller-coaster doesn’t need a great story to be fun.

6/10