Fast & Furious 6 – Film Review

Since Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian’s (Paul Walker) heist in Rio left them and their crew very rich people, they’ve scattered across the globe; however, they must still live as fugitives, unable to return home to their families. Meanwhile, Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) has been tracking a gang of lethally skilled mercenary drivers whose second-in-command is someone Dom knows. Unable to take them down himself, Hobbs asks Dom and his crew for help in exchange for full pardons for everyone.

Now that I have watched the first six films in the long-running Fast & Furious franchise I can genuinely say that I really love it for the most part. There are some occasional missteps and one entire film that I just thought was straight-up bad aka 2 Fast 2 Furious, but it’s mostly a series that knows how to have fun.

The initial few films were all fairly entertaining but the problem with them is that they were just hilariously over-the-top and they didn’t necessarily have a sense of heart. One thing that has been consistent ever since the first outing though, has been the characters and their development.

At this point in the franchise, I care extremely deeply about all of the main cast of characters, namely Brian O’Conner, Dominic Toretto, Mia Toretto, Roman Pearce, Tej Parker, and heck, at this point I even care about Luke Hobbs even though he was one of the main villains in Fast Five, which by the way, is still my favorite film in the series up to this point.

But although I got more of a thrill with Fast Five, Justin Lin’s Fast & Furious 6 is nevertheless an extremely satisfying sequel that takes this franchise to bolder and more thrilling heights than what we have seen so far.

When it comes to an action standpoint, the action in Fast & Furious 6 is the greatest of the first six. There’s practically not a single scene here where there isn’t something interesting or fun happening on screen. Whether it’s insanely intense shootouts, fistfights, or even a ten-plus minute sequence on an airplane, this sixth outing seriously knows how to craft thrilling action set pieces to keep viewers on the edge of their seats.

One of the things I’ve loved seeing the most from these most recent Fast & Furious movies is the entertainment value not being limited to just car lovers. In the first three films, if you don’t love racing and sports cars, you’re probably not going to find them entertaining at all. But starting with 2009’s Fast & Furious and onward, the screenwriters seriously made sure to make films that were appealing to both car fanatics as well as those who just wanted to get an action film. It’s a wonderful combination of both worlds.

When it comes to the dramatic side here, I wasn’t as invested as I was in Fast Five. The stakes here didn’t seem like they were raised and the main conflict of the movie didn’t grip me the way it should have. This entire film should have made me feel worried or on edge for these characters, but the tension in the main story was lacking sadly.

But because the film is just so exciting to watch, it’s easy to kind of just say “whatever”. Fast & Furious 6 is the first entry in the franchise to get extremely goofy too, with one sequence, in particular, involving Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto diving between two bridges to save somebody being genuinely hilarious even though it wasn’t supposed to be.

Even with its flaws though, Fast & Furious 6 is still a superbly fun flick that offers up yet another heaping serving of high-octane action and further development of the characters we have come to love.