Sunday 30 May 2021

Fast & Furious 6 (Justin Lin, 2013)

Since we last saw them, the Fast Family are enjoying retirement after their heist in Rio. That all changes when Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) arrives on Dominic Toretto's (Vin Diesel) doorstep.

Hobbs wants to recruit Dom's crew to help him hunt down a team of hi-tech thieves led by ex-special forces soldier Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) who are trying to steal components to assemble a doomsday device.

When Dom declines, Hobbs presents him with evidence that his deceased love, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), is alive - and a member of Shaw's crew.


What is with the titles of these movies? I feel like since 2009, the franchise found its footing on all fronts - including in the brevity of its titles.


I always thought this movie was called Fast 6 - it does not help that the next movie is called Furious 7.


Anyway, onto the movie!


This is the movie where I clicked into Fast 6 (or Furious 6, as it is styled in the credits). I don’t love the movie but it is my gateway into the franchise. On this viewing, it also helped me to clarify my feelings about the previous entry.


Fast Five is the assembly of the key elements, but it is let down by the franchise’s established tone, which was far more earnest and bluntly emotional. Fast & Furious 6 is where irony enters the picture - you can see it sneaking it in around the corners, but the movie still carries the earnestness of the previous movies.


That movie also shifted format, toward a heist plot with more overt action movie elements (the appearance of Luke Hobbs being a major part of that shift). But the villain is bland and under-utilised, and the heist aspect does not feel as original as the genre shifts in later entries.


There is something weird and off about the first half of the movie.


This is the first one of these screenings I went with a friend, and he brought up how unremarkable the London locations are.


There is something overtly contrived about Letty’s amnesia that feels like the franchise trying to correct the narrative moves of previous movies. The soap opera-ness of the Fast movies was a detriment in the previous movies, largely because it was focused on the triangle of Dom, Brian and Mia. The ensemble aspect means that we get a broader variety of subplots, which made me more interested. The doomed romance of Han and Giselle is delivered with only a few moments of screen-time. I enjoy those moments, and I think the climax is delivered with the right amount of panache, but the emotional impact is not quite there. Sung Kang’s performance is fantastic - I wish he was in the movies more.


Luke Evans’s Owen Shaw is a better villain than the previous entries, but he still feels like an idea rather than a character. These movies are more about set pieces than characters, but I think it is a real detriment that the franchise has never found (or committed to) a legitimately strong antagonist.


Having an evil team of drivers is still a great idea, and it is part of why I enjoy the movie. On his own terms, Shaw is not that threatening, but in the action sequences - when our heroes have to fight his crew - the movie clicks. Behind the wheel, our heroes are superhuman.


But when Roman and Han are trying to fight Joe Taslim (The Raid) or Michelle Rodriguez is facing off with Gina Carano, the movie gains real stakes. It is more satisfying watching our heroes actually have to struggle to win - it is not as well- conceived as I would like it to (our heroes, particularly Dom and Brian, still feel disconnected from any kind of pain or recognition of pain from their exploits).


While the London section of the film carries a patina of blandness, when the movie moves to Spain, I get into the movie, because it is when the franchise turns into a full-on action extravaganza.


The tank chase and the runway fight/chase are incredible, and that third act double-act of action sequences are when, for me, the franchise finally reaches its sweet spot. Cars suddenly become mythical objects that give the characters superpowers - Hobbs’ line from Five about not letting the team get into cars is suddenly rendered in more supernatural terms. 


There are so many great moments - Dom's superman-like catching of Letty as she jumps off the tank; Dom and Hobbs' combo body tackle-flying head-butt of one of Owen's goons; Giselle's heroic sacrifice (and Han's enraged vengeance). These scenes are the right side of action movie excess, with just the right sprinkling of humour and melodrama. Later movies go bigger and more cartoonish, but the balance in Fast & Furious 6 feels right.


The third act is so strong that it cancelled out how uninteresting the first half of the movie is. 


I feel like this movie gets a bit forgotten in the franchise - it is not as big of a shift as Fast Five, and it does not come with the baggage of Furious 7, but on its own terms it is pretty fun. Some of it is unintentional - the end sequence where Hobbs and Dom come to terms is so weird in terms of its blocking that my audience burst out laughing - but it feels more secure than Five, and it feels like the ensemble have more room to colour their characters.

In many ways, I feel like F6, not F5, set the template for the franchise, moving the series toward the realm of international espionage and global threats. Furious 7 and Fate of the Furious would continue this trend, with the family jetting all over the world to rev their engines in the name of world peace.

More poignantly, this movie is also the end of an era: it is the last movie to feature series regulars Han and Giselle, it is the last movie directed by Justin Lin (until he made his return for F9), and it is the last movie to star Paul Walker before his death in November 2013. 

Later movies would make billions and the ensemble would expand to include more big names, but - at least on this re-watch - Fast & Furious 6 feels like the peak of what F&F could be. 

Previous posts

The Fast and the Furious





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