FilmReviews: Fast & Furious 6

"All Roads Lead To This."

So...It was a dark and rainy sunday and I was looking for a movie to watch then I made a fast decision to watch Fast & Furious 6.Supposedly,I was going to watch Fast Five before Furious 6,but I was running out of time and I felt unproductive.I don't know about it,but during sundays,I always feel not like doing something even though that day's pacing is fast.But anyway,I've made it through the laziness and I've had a really good time after watching this.Before digging into my insights,I'd like to give you few details regarding the movie first.Fast & Furious 6 is the sixth installment in the Fast and the Furious film franchise that launched in 2001.The film is directed by Justin Lin (Fast & Furious/Fast Five) and written by Chris Morgan & Gary Scott Thompson.It stars Vin Diesel (XxX/The Fast and the Furious),Paul Walker (Pleasantville/Flags of our Fathers),Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (Pain & Gain/G.I Joe: Retaliation),Jordana Brewster (The Faculty),Michelle Rodriguez (Girlfight/Avatar),Tyrese Gibson (Transformers/2Fast 2Furious),Sung Kang (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift),Gal Gadot,Ludacris,Luke Evans (Immortals) and Gina Carano (Haywire).The film was released in the Philippines in IMAX and regular 2D May 24,2013.The same date as the US release.




Before I start this review's engine up,here are the factors that make this a review:
>Story/Plot
>Acting/Performances
>Miscellaneous
>Direction/Director's Effort

Now...Engine start!

Story/Plot:

One of the key elements I loved in Fast & Furious 6 was the story.It just had to be.In Fast Five,they go heisting which they do of course illegally while in Fast 6,they work for The Rock who orders to capture a group of fugitives led by Owen Shaw.It was good to see these guys face off against another bunch of fugitives just like them.Only to know that the other is more dangerous and tactical.But what Shaw's team didn't know is that Dom's crew can take them down no matter what the cost specially when it comes to family.If there's one thing that you shouldn't mess with them,that should be family.That theme worked in Fast Five,but I would have to say that it was more effective and felt more emotionally grounded in this one.What I would love to speak out is that it was a delight seeing these bunch of fugitives take each other down.And this plot theme made the film play out like a thriller.In the previous film,I liked their take on heisting which was fun,but in this one it feels like a gritty thriller...Fast & Furious style.Which means we have outrageous stunts and cool car action.But aside from the gang against a gang plotline,I also loved F&F 6's story for the film served as a puzzle that completes the others' missing links (Tokyo Drift included).The film itself tells that it truly is directly linked with the others and not loosely connected for in this chapter,few more characters from the past F&F films appear once again and also,these characters have something to do with the film's new character.Thus,I found the tagline "All Roads Lead To This" fitting to the film as it brings the story full circle and it tells that all the previous F&F films paved the way for this big vehicle of a film.I just have to say that F&F6's story is much better when compared with Fast Five.'Cause what I realized in Fast Five is that the story had a few missing links and one of them had the big question which It tend to think remained unanswered and that would have to be "Why the hell do they rob a million dollars from a rich guy?".But in this one,I tend to think that the story is well-written considering that there are a lot of revelations and twists.What's also good is the change in direction.Fast Five felt light,while this one was a little dark but nonetheless,still fun.To writers Chris Morgan and Gary Scott Thompson,all I could say is that you guys did a really good job.You didn't just wrote a story,but you managed to make it a puzzle to fit in with the previous chapters of this high-octane saga.

Acting/Performances:

From the previous F&F films,the dialogue may be sappy and well,sometimes crappy but in this one,I can say that the dialogue is improved even by a bit.It was less cheesier than Fast Five's.But enough of the dialogue analysis,I wanna talk about the actors.The cast mainly consists of Vin Diesel,Paul Walker,Dwayne Johnson,Jordana Brewster,Michelle Rodriguez and Luke Evans while the supporting cast includes Tyrese Gibson,Gina Carano,Chris "Ludacris" Bridges,Sung Kang and Gal Gadot.First that I wanna talk about is the main casts' acting.I found Vin Diesel's performance here slightly improved here than in Fast Five though there are some parts of his performance here that was reminiscent of his in Fast & Furious.Maybe it was because of his concern for Letty.But enough of the emotional talk.I thought that he was pretty bad-ass in this one.His one-liners were cool and the way he says his dialogue with his deep gruelly voice is just oh so macho.For Paul Walker,I thought his acting was pretty flat but still acceptable though I found his acting here to be almost on par with his in Fast Five.It's like almost nothing changed.It's as if Vin Diesel steals every scene that has him in it.For Dwayne Johnson,his performance was pretty good too and he gets to have fun with Dom's crew which always resulted into a good and fun scene.I found his tranformation from bad guy to good guy pretty well done.He blends with the F&F crew well without losing his militaristic bad-ass attitude.And,the best part is,he gets to make some jokes in this one which are all pretty funny.But still,The Rock was bad-ass and makes a good team together with Vin Diesel.Talk about team muscle.Jordana Brewster's acting wasn't something special.Her dialogue was normal and there were no scenes which let her stand out,but it was still good to see her with the crew.Now,if we're talking about the toughest girls onscreen whether on film or TV,one of them would be Michelle Rodriguez.Rodriguez's character Letty was one of my favorite characters from the original F&F films.And in this chapter,she's tougher than ever.In this one,Rodriguez's acting was bad-ass and I think her character Letty has always been the female counterpart of Dom.She was just so bad-ass and cool specially in this one.Her one-liners and dialogue in Fast 6 were clever,funny and awesome.And let's not forget the highlight of her comeback appearance in this chapter: the fight scene between her and Gina Carano in the subway in Waterloo.That scene was exactly the female counterpart of Dom and Hobbs' fight scene in Fast Five.And of course,Rodriguez stands out in that scene.Representing femme fatale bad-assery.For Luke Evans,both his character and performance were amazing.I think they chose just the right guy to play Owen Shaw.The character was like Dom's,only more notorious,less muscular,but more tactical.And I would have to give Luke Evans a thumbs up for his performance in Fast 6 for he may be the best villain this franchise has ever had yet.Fast Five's rich and corrupt Hernan Reyes definitely was no match for this brains and brawns fugitive.For the main cast,those who I would like to give a thumbs up would be Vin Diesel,The Rock,Luke Evans and Michelle Rodriguez.These four really stand out in terms of character value and performance.As for Paul Walker and Jordana Brewster,they were still good but they needed more.Now for the supporting cast...To start it right,I wanna begin by talking about Tyrese Gibson's perf.In my opinion,I think he improved right where Fast Five left off.I think that in Fast 6,his lines were just funnier and somehow even clever.But let's not forget that he gets a (bigger) piece of the action this time.From the opening chase to runway pursuit,I just had fun with his character getting involved in all these mischievous adventures and believe me,he serves as the film's biggest comedic relief which was great.For Ludacris' perf.,he was pretty decent.And like Tyrese,his lines are occassionally funny and the two of them make up a good team.Behind Tyrese/Ludacris,one of my many favorites performances from the supporting cast would come from the lovely bad-ass duo of Sung Kang and Gal Gadot.It was a really fun time seeing this awesome lovebirds onscreen once again.The best part is,that both get to kick some ass.But really,I just wanna focus on Gal.I thought her very final scene in the film where she triggers the gun just before she falls to her untimely death was well done.I could just somehow feel her emotions and I thought she was sweet to Han by sacrificing herself.For Sung Kang alone,he was quite good.His perf. was on par with his in Fast Five.That and that,the last performance I wanna tackle is Gina Carano's.She was the latest addition in the F&F films,I wasn't expecting her to be good,and turns out that my expectations succeeded.Her performance was quite bland in terms of lines,delivery and dialogue but when it comes to physical or something what I like to call bad-assery,she impressed me.Her fight with Michelle Rodriguez was amazing and will make you cheer at times.Overall,the actors' performances in Fast & Furious 6 sometimes outdid their's in the previous films but some actors' acting were just on par with theirs' in the last film.In terms of dialogue,I found them improved and less cheesy than the last.There were cool one liners and some funny jokes.For the cast,the ones that really stood out were Vin Diesel,The Rock,Michelle Rodriguez and Luke Evans.Their performances impressed me because of their proper execution and delivery of dialogue.Perhaps,a thumbs up for them would work.

Miscellaneous:

The music,the score,the cinematography,the actions and everything else miscellaneous were all amazing in Fast & Furious 6 and they worked on so many different levels.I wanna tackle them one by one properly.The music is a big part of the F&F culture and F&F6's music was great and I wanna say that part of it reminded me so much of the first film.The film's theme "We Own It" by rappers 2 Chainz & Wiz Khalifa worked properly in the film.The moment it played in the opening credits,it gave me goosebumps.The song was aggressive and furious in tone and it fits properly with the film due to song's tone and the film's aggressive,serious vibe.And IMO,it was better than Fast Five's theme "How We Roll".Other than "We Own It",the techno music in F&F6 was amazing too and was very reminiscent of the first film's techno music.And when part of it was played in the "Letty & Dom" race scene,believe me that it made me wanna engage in a race.And oh yeah,that song worked effectively in that scene.This time,the score is not composed by Brian Tyler,but instead it's handled by some guy named Lucas Vidal.I really haven't heard of him until this,but I can say that this guy was good in terms of being a composer but of course not as good as Brian Tyler who composed the scores for Fast Five,Fast & Furious and The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift.His score was quite good.He made it quite more serious than Fast Five's fun score which was good in terms of changing direction.Perhaps my favorite piece from him would be the piece which plays during the scene where Riley and Gisele go recon and hunt down one of Owen Shaw's teammates. What I found relieving though is that numerous times within the film,glimpses of the last 2 F&F films scores are heard and that makes it better.Hearing those memorable themes from the previous two films were good to the ears.But still,I thought that Lucas Vidal needed to improve his score.For the cinematography,the film was shot pretty well.The camera work was better in this one than in Fast Five.Perfect example of the well-done camera work was the tank chase scene.The way the camera moves when Rome jumps off from his car to Brian's was pretty awesome.The cinematography was definitely improved thanks to director of photography Stephen F.Windon who also did Fast Five's photography.For the action set pieces,it couldn't get any more ridiculous in Fast 6.If you saw a vault get dragged in the streets of Rio in Fast Five then in Fast 6 you get to see a tank roaming the busy highways of Spain,two chicks beating off each other and don't forget Dom's team taking down a big-ass plane.Sure Fast 6's action scenes are ridiculous but damn are they fun despite the lack of realism in those scenes.Specially the tank chase and the runway pursuit.Those scenes outdid almost every action scene in Fast Five IMO.For the other stuff,I thought that the opening credits was a pretty cool move.It made me happy as an F&F fan seeing those montages of clips from the first,second,fourth and fifth film with "We Own It" as the background music.And yeah,it gave me goosebumps the first time I saw it.That was unexpected and it was a true surprise.For the post-credits scene,I didn't see that one coming and the way that scene was built was astonishing.It revealed that Han's death from Tokyo Drift wasn't just an accident but instead,it was all part of a plan.To be exact,Ian Shaw's plan who's played by Jason Statham.Judging from that small but surprising scene,I can say that Jason Statham would do a great job in playing Ian Shaw in Fast & Furious 7.

Direction/Director's Effort:

About my opinion on Justin Lin in directing this film,I would say that he did a really good job by piecing everything together in the film's story,creating the action set pieces,bringing the team back and choosing the locations.But the thing is,he wasn't able to bring back the fun vibe Fast Five had.He made this film more serious but thankfully still fun,entertaining and highly enjoyable.In conclusion,he made Fast 6 more entertaining and more enjoyable than Fast Five but he wasn't able to make Fast 6 just as good as Fast Five was.Either way,I thought he did a job well done.But what's sad is that he isn't coming back to direct the next F&F.Taking in his place would be Insidious director James Wan who I think will make Fast & Furious 7 darker in tone.I just hope that Wan will do a good job just as Lin did in 5 F&F sequels.

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PROS:

>Fast & Furious 6 is incredibly enjoyable and more entertaining than Fast Five.

>The storytelling is amazing.

>MORE ACTION!

>The villain Owen Shaw is the best villain this franchise has ever had to date.

>Michelle Rodriguez's comeback is very refreshing.

>So many surprises.

>It's refreshing to see the F&F team back.

>The action set pieces outdoes those in Fast Five.

>The performances are amazing.
CONS:

>Sure there is more action,but damn are they ridiculous.

>Gina Carano's (verbal) performance is dull.

>Lacks realism.

>Still not as good as Fast Five.

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Verdict: More ridiculous,more action packed and more enjoyable is what you can describe Fast & Furious 6,but it fails to bring the strong sense of fun Fast Five had.What's good though is that F&F6 has a strong,well structured story which is also a puzzle,and the film brings so many surprises with it.Long story short: Fast & Furious 6 is highly entertaining and for fans,you may call it the best in the series.I am also a fan but I still think Fast Five is the best but F&F6 is more enjoyable,entertaining and better in terms of plot.

Fast & Furious 6 gets 7.5 stars over 10.



*The high octane 6th installment in the F&F franchise Fast & Furious 6 is now available to own on DVD & Blu-Ray distributed for home video by Magnavision Home Video.The previous 5 F&F films are also available to own on DVD & Blu-Ray also distributed by Magnavision Home Video.

**Catch the next high-octane chapter in the F&F franchise Fast & Furious 7 in theaters July 2014.

That's it MovieGeeks.Thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for my next FilmReview.

For now,check out this clip from the film:



Film clip courtesy of Movieclips.com and Universal Pictures.

(C) 2013 Universal Pictures/One Race Films/Original Film/Relativity Media.All rights reserved.