Fast & Furious 6

RATING: C+

The Fast and the Furious series had finally sort of hit its stride with its fifth installment, thanks in part to the addition of The Rock as well as the addition of more humor and basically ditching the whole "street-racing" theme. So now we're at Part 6, and if the last movie was a heist-themed one with fast cars included, this is just straight up action/adventure... with fast cars still included. 

After the events of Fast Five, the protagonists have finally settled down and avoided their lives of crime. But this movie exists, so of course they're going to get dragged into something. In this case, it's actually a good cause: Hobbs shows up and wants Dominic Toretto and his crew to help him catch an international criminal named Owen Shaw. Of course these guys who are retired from all the action wouldn't bother, right? Unless, of course, Hobbs shows them a picture of Letty working with Shaw. Supposedly *dead* Letty. And thus another crazy adventure begins involving lots of insane stunts. 

This movie is quite conflicting, actually. On one hand, it's even more fast-paced than its predecessor, and has some pretty exciting action sequences (an early car chase and the tank scene come to mind, despite the latter's ridiculous end). There is *lots* of hand-to-hand combat in this movie, and it's all genuinely great. There isn't quite as much humor in this one, but there's still some (a scene where The Rock gets info out of an official by literally crushing his hand during a handshake comes to mind). The production quality has gotten much better, with some great set pieces and brilliant cinematography. Also, kudos to the stunt work in this film should be given. And the acting's fairly good most of the way also. In addition to the actors seen in previous films, Luke Evans is surprisingly decent as Owen Shaw. 

But for all of that good stuff, there's also a lot of pretty stupid stuff. Let's start with how Letty's even alive. Without giving too much anyway, they literally alter her original death scene from the fourth movie in order for her to live in one of the most infuriating "character-thought-dead-actually-survived" scenes I've ever seen. And of course Letty eventually rejoins the team (so that's not really a spoiler)... but she does it way too easily. And falls in love with Dom again even more all too easily. There's also some other things elsewhere in the movie that make very little sense story-wise. This movie just so happens to contain the stupidest "this character was evil all along" reveal I've ever seen. It makes zero sense due to the fact this character and another fight at one point like they're trying to kill each other... when apparently they were on the same side all along? I'm convinced it was a decision made late in production or something. 

Aside from the story elements that make little sense, of course there's plenty of action moments that make no sense either. It seems that they try to outdo their own ridiculousness each film now, and while I'm not certain that anything here actually tops the ridiculous finale of Fast Five, this one does include a scene where a falling Mustang somehow causes a tank to flip, and a scene with a runaway that has to span at least 10 miles without one single turn... so this film comes close at times, is what I'm saying. 

In some ways, this installment is actually more thrilling than its predecessor. But it's also a lot more infuriating at times. For a movie that often clearly wants you take it seriously, it also tells you "screw you" quite a bit. It's an enjoyable film that many people will probably come away mostly enjoying due to its constant thrills. More serious watchers, however, may find themselves more conflicted. It's a movie I actually wish I could recommend a bit more, and yet I'm already probably giving it a bit more credit than it deserves.