Movie with Abe: Fast and Furious 6

Fast and Furious 6
Directed by Justin Lin
Released May 24, 2013

To say that my enthusiasm for this film was high is an extraordinary understatement. Few blockbuster series achieve their high points with their fifth installments, and that’s reason enough to anticipate this movie. Understandably, this sixth entry can’t top the fifth, but it serves as an entirely exciting and invigorating thrill ride. For much of its runtime, it represents a departure from the focus on street racing and criminal activity that has encompassed most of the previous five films, and a successful venture into full-on action territory ripe for visiting again endlessly in film after film in the future.

While it wouldn’t have been a problem to cover the same familiar ground and frame the plot in the same way that the past five films have, it’s probably best that this series opted to reinvent itself and take a new approach to its marvelous cast of characters. The return of Michelle Rodriguez’s Letty, foreshadowed in the post-credits scene in “Fast Five,” is the obvious impetus for the gang to get back together, united under the legal auspices of Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) as he enlists Dom (Vin Diesel) and his crew to take down the group of vehicle-wielding villains with whom Letty has joined forces.

What this series has always done best is create preposterous, high-octane situations in which something truly incredible occurs which serves both as impressive and ridiculous at the same time. There are several such moments in this movie, starting with Hobbs’ simple solution to trying to take down a car he is chasing: jump down onto its roof. These scenes exemplify why this kind of film should still exist, and, more than anything, it’s a superb argument for the continued practice of going to a movie theatre to share in a film viewing experience. Laughter and applause are appropriate and completely in keeping with the film’s style.

“Fast and Furious 6” is a film that both knows exactly what it wants to be and a film completely comfortable with trying new things. Its opening credits sequence visually reviews the major plot points from the first five films, offering a stylized and magnificent summary of these characters and the way in which they all connect. The action picks up in the film’s final act, capping an extremely exciting chapter in this saga. The film’s token post-credits scene, which actually comes before the credits, secures this franchise as eternally viable and capable of change, setting up an even more enticing seventh film that can’t come soon enough.

B+