Film Review: Fast and Furious 6

About the film

Fast and Furious 6 is the sixth film in the Fast and Furious series. The film was released at the cinema on 17^th May and it has a run time of 130 minutes. Fast and Furious 6 is rated 12A due to violence and language.

Plot

After the success of their last job in Rio, Dom and the rest of his crew are off living their lives and enjoying their new wealth. Brian and Mia are celebrating the birth of their son while Dom is quite happy with Elena. The rest of the crew are scattered all over the world. At the same time, Agent Hobbs and his new partner are tracking a crew of drivers causing havoc over 12 countries, led by mastermind Owen Shaw. Hobbs knows that Shaw cannot be caught with the usual methods and the only people who will know how he works are the criminals he once attempted to catch.

While asking Dom and his crew for help, Hobbs shows a picture of Letty who is supposed to be dead. Dom doesn’t believe the picture to begin with but desperately wants to know what it means and if Letty is actually alive. This gives him no option but to round up the crew, head to London and help Hobbs catch someone even harder to track down than Dom himself. Knowing that Hobbs cannot do this mission without them, Dom and the crew say it’s full pardons for everyone or no deal. All everyone wants is to return home and live their lives again and helping Hobbs may be the only way to ever get that.  

What I thought

The Fast and Furious series is one of those that you either seem to love or hate. I know many people that cannot stand the series but I am one of those who absolutely loves it. I have loved it from the first film, and each film (with the exception of maybe Tokyo Drift) is better than the last. After the ending of Fast and Furious 5, I was extremely excited about the sixth film.

Fast and Furious 6 begins by showing Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and his new partner Riley (Gina Carano) in Russia after a driving crew has caused havoc and destruction to a military convoy. Hobbs is beginning to get really frustrated with the fact that he cannot track down and catch leader of the crew, Owen Shaw (Luke Evans). Quickly after, we are shown how the characters from the previous film are living their lives after getting extremely rich in Rio. I really liked how the film reintroduced the audience to old favourites while also introducing the new characters at the same time. The opening scenes really helped to set up the plot for the rest of the film without wasting any time.

Setting wise, this time around the majority of the film is set in London, as well as parts in Spain. Previous films have seen locations such as Rio and Tokyo, quite extravagant and stunning places but I think the London setting here gave the film a grittier feel to it. Before, it has been about girls in the skimpiest of clothes at races and the luxury of the character’s surroundings. With scenes in the London Underground, back alley garages and pawn shops, Fast and Furious 6 is different to the other films. While we get to see a less touristy view of London, there are also fantastic car chases around the streets including places such as Leicester Square which adds a bit of colour and the more well-known parts of the city.

Next to Fast and Furious 5, I think that this film had one of the best plots in the series. The fact that Hobbs had to ask Dom and the crew for help was a great thing for me. It showed that there was a lot more to a character I thought was quite one-sided and it also showed that you can’t do everything on your own. The addition of villain Owen Shaw and the mystery of Letty were extremely well put together and they worked really well too. There are great reasons behind most of the things that happen in this film and I feel as though every little detail had been thought of; however crazy some of those reasons may have been.

Everything in this film is bigger and better than it has been before. The car chases are more extravagant, the cars are bigger, better and faster and the plot is more complicated. The car scenes have always been one of my favourite aspects of these films because they are just so exciting. This time around, the action and excitement is on a completely different level. Instead of just using cars and bikes, we get military vehicles, strange little go-kart looking things and more interesting and exciting places to be chased. The fight scenes are also larger, longer and with bigger guys fighting it out. I cannot fault the action in this film whatsoever.

Although a fast paced action film, Fast and Furious 6 also has a wonderful message about family. Throughout the film, Dom explains that you never turn your back on family and that family sticks together through anything. Regardless of what is going on in their lives, the crew are willing to drop anything if one of them calls, especially if that call comes from Dom. When he explains about the new job and about the possibility of Letty still being alive, everyone gets together quickly and are prepared to do anything to get her back. Many of the crew members are ‘manly’, for lack of a better word, so it was nice to see something like this soften them up a bit.  

The cast all do fantastic jobs in Fast and Furious 6. Vin Diesel reprises his role as hard man Dominic Toretto but as I said before, the family aspect of the film gives him a softer side. We also get to see him act differently when it comes to Letty. I forget that amongst the tough talking and fighting, Dom is a character who loved Letty with everything he had and she was everything to him. It was nice to see this side of him and also the character development compared with how he was in earlier films. It was also great to see Dom and Brian (Paul Walker) having such a close relationship now. In the first thing, these two were near enemies and a lot has happened between the two. With Brian having a son with Mia, Dom’s sister, these characters have a great relationship and the banter and conversations between the two were great to watch. Other cast members worth mentioning are Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce and Chris Bridges as Tej Parker. These two have a wonderful bromance going on and many of the jokes in this film come from these two.

Fast and Furious 6 is by far one of my favourite films in this series. There are great characters, an evil villain and such an exciting plot. This one had everything I could have wanted and more and I can’t wait to see where the series goes next.