Some stunts would be right at home in a Tamil movie
By Deepak Chitnis
The Fast and Furious series has recently transformed from a small set of low-budget cult racing movies to one of the most lucrative franchises in Hollywood. Fast Five reinvented the series as something less involved with racing and more in line with a Latino version of Ocean’s 11. It wasn’t flawless, but it was dumb fun, and for that it easily became the new pinnacle of the series, both critically and commercially. Fast and Furious 6 (the naming of the movies in the series have never made sense, don’t expect them to start now) continues the story pretty much right where the last movie left of, but leaves a lot of the fun behind while keeping all of the dumb.
For the record, I’ve never been the biggest fan of this series. I like cars, but the way the characters in these movies drool over automobiles (and the scantily-clad women that are always inexplicably surrounding them) never struck a chord with me. That’s why I appreciated Fast Five more than the others – it got rid of a lot of that and became a straight heist movie. Fast and Furious 6 reverts back to a lot of the same old nonsense we’ve seen before, this time transporting things from LA/South America to London. The change in scenery is refreshing, but everything else is stale.
There’s no point going over the story – it’s something about how an English criminal wants to create some incredible doomsday device and somehow does this with fast cars and incredible stupidity – because you probably already know if you want to see this movie or not. If phrases like “Hobbs recruits Dom and his team for help” and “Letty is still alive and working for the new bad guy” mean nothing to you, stay home. If you know what those phrases mean, you’ve probably already seen the movie.
I know it sounds like I’m being harsh, but the movie isn’t a total bust. The action scenes are shot well, with less reliance on shaky-cam and more on actual choreography and fluidity. The film has no sense of physics – some of the stunts here would be right at home in a Tamil movie – but there is some fun to be had at seeing a man launch himself across a bridge to catch someone else in midair. Tyrese Gibson, never much of an actor, pretty much steals the entire movie by providing about 90% of the laughs. The rest of the cast is serviceable: Vin Diesel grumbles and scowls like a pro, Paul Walker does a reasonably good job (does he do any movies except Fast and Furious ones?), Dwayne Johnson never smiles and only wears Under Armor, and Michelle Rodriguez is decent. Luke Evans makes for a surprisingly effective bad guy, but the mid-credits tease proves that he’s only an appetizer for what’s coming next year.
A Fast and Furious 7 is already guaranteed for summer 2014. Justin Lin, director of all the films since the third, won’t be coming back; he claims he can’t make the rapidly approaching release date, but I suspect the real reason is that he’s simply done everything he can. This movie feels tired. The last movie was ridiculous but fun; this movie tries to top it and just becomes stupid. A major character’s death at the end of the movie is brushed off minutes later as if nothing happened (although in this series, there’s a good chance she’ll pop back up next year). The cops and military officials have no regard for the law and are morons to boot.
The rumor is that next year’s installment will be the last, but I doubt it, especially when considering what a moneymaker this franchise has become. But here’s hoping the seventh film can redeem the series and bring it back to at least the level of the fifth installment. If it doesn’t, then here’s hoping it really will be the last, even though that means we’ll never see Paul Walker in a movie ever again.
Fast and Furious 6
Released May 24th, 2013
Rated PG-13 for violence and language.
Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Luke Evans
Director: Justin Lin
Rating: C
To contact the author, email to : deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com