Fast & Furious 6

The most shocking thing about Fast & Furious 5 was that it was a half decent film. This meant a green light for another instalment and (arguably for the first time ever) some anticipation about the next F & F release. Actually, with the way things work now, even if it had been utter rubbish we would still have had Fast & Furious 6 regardless. How else to explain the arrival of F & F 5 in the first place, following the abysmal 2009 entry? Anyway, before this digression becomes too complicated, what isn’t difficult to work out is that director Justin Lin has mainly stuck with what made the last film such a success, i.e. a predictable plot that lets you not think too heavily with some absurd action sequences thrown in every now and then. Where this does differ slightly is that the producers have decided that the film series needs to move away from the underground car racing scene into a more character driven (sorry) action / thriller hybrid. It doesn’t fully work and some of the special effects in the few car chases that do occur stick out like a sore thumb with Lin’s over generous cutting of said scenes hardly helping matters. However, it’s hard to be too mean about the ludicrously silly final chase scene involving a large aircraft, which, according to some bod on the internet, would have needed a 26 mile runway in order to accommodate such a scene in real life. Yup, it’s that kind of film. Cast wise its pretty much as you were and the series continues its unbroken run of success in that not one of them can deliver a comic line. On the newbie front Luke Evans is pure mahogany as the villain of the piece, but things are saved on that front by a final scene cameo which is hilariously intriguing as to who is picking up the bad guy handle for the next film. All in all a disengage brain bit of fun. It’s just a shame this is a backwards step from last time out. Rating: 6/10.