Fast & Furious 6
The Fast & Furious movies pretty much live or die by their stunts and action sequences. And ever since he took over the helm with the third film in the series (Tokyo Drift), director Justin Lin has provided plenty of over the top thrills for the fans. He does the same here, including a high speed chase with an armored tank down a heavily populated highway, a scene I kind of admired. But, to tell the truth, a little of these movies go a long way. I understand that these films are all about big, dumb fun, but this time, I felt like the emphasis was a little too much on the dumb, and not enough on the fun. The fact that the movie runs just over two hours also feels a little excessive. A movie like this need only run 90 or 100 minutes. It's not like it needs the extra time for character development, as there's very little to find here. And maybe it's just me, but I found the rapid fire editing a little hard to follow this time around.
The plot for this film reads kind of like a cross between a Saturday morning cartoon, and a soap opera. And don't even bother walking into this film if you haven't seen the previous entries. It assumes you're up to speed on the characters, the events, who has died in previous films, and who is seemingly back from the dead, though stricken with amnesia. This time, a hi-tech criminal named Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) has gathered a band of thieves who like to hot rod around exotic locales like Moscow and London as they attempt to steal the parts they need for a military super weapon. On his team is Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), whom fans of the franchise know used to be the girlfriend of our lead hero, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel). She was thought to have died two movies ago, but she somehow survived, is stricken with amnesia, and is now working for the evil Shaw.
Dom learns that Letty is still alive from special agent, Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), who is on a mission to bring down Shaw, and wants the help of Dom and his crew. Thus, the old gang of street racers, weapons specialists, hot women who are proficient in martial arts (for whenever the screenplay requires a cat fight scene), and tech guys are reassembled. Also along for the ride is Dom's best friend, Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker), who used to be a leading character, but in later films, has pretty much been reduced to the role of sidekick. He has a baby with his lovely wife early on in the film, but both the wife and the kid exist so they can be threatened by Shaw and his cohorts in the third act. Speaking of the third act, the film's big climax involving a fight in and outside of an airplane goes on way too long, as do a lot of the action sequences in this film. The climax also includes a main character switching sides at the last minute, which I guess is supposed to be shocking, but has absolutely no impact, as the movie never bothered to make the character relevant to us in the first place.
I've been able to enjoy some of the past films in this series, but Fast & Furious 6 really just did nothing for me. I never got involved, and the movie goes on for much longer than it needs to. If you're a fan who has followed these characters from the beginning, then don't let me stop you. You'll have a great time, and I'm sure the teaser for the next movie that's hinted at during the end credits will have you screaming for more. Maybe I'm just worn out on this series. I just couldn't care about anyone, and the action and stunts weren't enough to distract me from the fact that I wasn't much enjoying myself. The heroes came across as being either scowling, or spewing one-liners non-stop, while the villains were a rather faceless and uninteresting bunch. This movie wasn't made for me, I guess. 
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