There鈥檚 something to be admired about a movie series that has gone from fun to bloated to having stuck around so long that it actually became fun again, largely thanks to the introduction of Dwayne Johnson in 鈥楩ast Five鈥�.
Now the 鈥楩ast & Furiouses鈥� are being churned out at such an alarming rate, you鈥檒l barely have time to catch your breath before part seven will be with us next spring. But we鈥檒l need to make do in the meantime with this ludicrously enjoyable sixth entry that sees former criminals Dom and Brian (Vin Diesel and Paul Walker) retired to family life in Spain with a drug kingpins鈥� fortune.
Their serene existence is interrupted, however, when Agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) enlists them to bring down mercenary leader Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) in exchange for full pardons. The proposition becomes personal when it鈥檚 also revealed that Dom鈥檚 deceased beloved, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), is not only alive, but aiding Shaw as one of his drivers. With so much at stake, Dom reassembles his fellow street racers and heads to London, where Shaw and his team plan to steal a valuable computer chip.
Similar to 鈥楧ie Hard鈥�, the action is amped up with each new installment, a requirement that leaves the writers and director Justin Lin scrambling to figure out the logistics of crashing motorcycles into low flying fighter jets. Lin meets this challenge by tossing plausibility aside and raising his characters to near superhuman status. The limits of belief are tested as the heroes emerge uninjured after being flung onto moving vehicles and above overpasses during the film鈥檚 many exhilarating chase sequences. The gravity-defying stunts represent the true nature of the genre, not as a reflection of real life, but as testosterone fueled fantasy.
鈥楩ast & Furious 6鈥� is turbo charged cheese at its finest and is opening at the Beacon Theatre this Friday.
