Well, no; but it certainly is a bit taxing amidst the insanely impossible but ferociously exciting stunts. In the middle of the buddy humour and street chases throughout London and Spain, there was a story to follow and one key word: amnesia. The premise, this time, is following Fast Five that Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto and Paul Walker's Brian O'Conner are settled and happy in Spain having left behind their lives of crime and crime-stopping. Luke Hobbs, a Security Service man played by The Rock, with arms that literally look like they came from a Marvel comicbook, steps in to interrupt this life of terracotta tranquility to ask them for 'one last job'.
It seems Letty (portrayed by tomboy Michelle Rodriguez), Toretto's former girlfriend, is very much alive and well after the events of Fast And Furious (one that I hadn't watched and one I hadn't a clue about). This is enough to pull the boys out of Spain and into The Rock's huge arms to set up a team (a reunited team, at that) to catch ex-Special Forces man, Owen Shaw, played in a cold yet wasted turn by Luke Evans. There are camp 'touching' moments between wife and husband, buddy and buddy throughout with hopeful strings filling the soundtrack. These moments I found hard to take seriously, but hopefully the film knew not to take itself so. After all, seeing The Rock in a later scene gaining air from nowhere to headbutt another meathead in the face was ridiculous fun.
Speaking of which there many quips, jokes, twists and full-on action moments that will stay with me now that the movie is over. The banter about the size of Tyrese Gibson's forehead is a joke played out until the end; Ludacris' fascination with gadgetry is an interesting turn for his character, one who was just a street race organiser in 2 Fast 2 Furious, but again a side of which I was not familiar with. His delivery of the line about a highway upon seeing a tank ("We're gonna need a plan's B, C, D... We're gonna run out of alphabet!") had me howling. One side of the story I was also unfamiliar with was the uncertainty of Han (Sung Kang) being alive by the end of the film as his fate is met in Tokyo Drift, set after the events of this particular movie. Many car wrecks and explosive planes later, his fate is certainly sealed in a mid-credits sequence. The revelation of a villain who would impose far more of a threat than the forgettable Shaw is exciting but an uncertain one. Hopefully the introduction of James Wan, best known for Hostel and Saw, as director for Fast 7 will extinguish some of the stars in this now-bloated cast.
This is the thing; Fast And Furious 6 is not a car franchise anymore. It's an action franchise based around cars. The formula was changed up in Fast And Furious to break the mould and introduce elements unfamiliar to the series before. Yes, there are action sequences, crime drama and hand-to-hand fight scenes in the previous installments; but this time around their are gunfights, explosions, NoS-powered gadgetry, treachery and terrorism. It's a very different film but one where the characters have developed so well amongst themselves that seeing the sacrificial deaths of two franchise favourites is a definite blow to the group dynamic. The dialogue is not too taxing or for the most intellectual of audiences but it is enough to show you as a viewer that the characters are lifelong friends, where family is everything to them. It may have ridiculous moments but I found myself enjoying the ridiculousness onscreen, between the comedic back-and-forth throughout.
And to be honest, anything beating The Hangover III to the top box office spot is a winner for me.
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