Fast & Furious 6

And the streak continues with the team back at it again, for the 6th Chapter! As you'd have probably known through the after-credits scene from the previous film, the plot will revolve around Letty's (Michelle Rodríguez) alleged death. Although it works, it is a running joke that the team keep saying every time it's going to be the last ride, yet they churn out another one.

Stephen F. Windon's wide angle cinematography to sweep cover the city landscapes & Spain's curved hillside road continues striking a chord with audiences. Even a floating trash piece that hits the camera during a wild chase is timely captured! Editors have done the same quality piece of work as they did in the previous. Snappy & swift all the way through! The way they've used quick cuts to narrate hand brawls is noteworthy! Tank turning cars into pancakes, big time explosion for pillar collapses, car tosses, tunnel run and the climax with the biggest airplane you could have ever seen are freaking high octane actions! Similar to Fast Five's car launch into river episode, there's one enthralling sequence revolving Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) being thrown across the opposite road to save Letty that completely sucks your breath away!

As far as the script is concerned, the writing comes close to the finesse of Fast Five's. Team assemblage once again to achieve a mission for both the police and self-benefits. Full pardons all the way around. A piece for this side, a piece for the other. Stakes are higher now, since our heroes are facing off villains with high tech gadgets, detonators and hockey-puck-like devices that could hack one's vehicle. Owen Shaw's (Luke Evans) sturdy-built monster is badass by the way! To match this level, our guys have got to step up their game. Fast & Furious 6 is much alike a cinematic adaptation of the Grand Theft Auto series. You complete the side missions in order to obtain materials needed to finish off the main mission. It's about raising your own guards up while tackling the foes using their weaknesses. With Letty shooting Dom, a strong question arises from beneath. Why did she do so? Did she do it on purpose? Tension surfaces inside her crew as well. Is she trustable? Is she a rat? Michelle Rodríguez aptly portrays the conflicts inside her character, in terms of identity & loyalty. She shows subtle curiosity to want to know who she is. The fact that people do change from being one person to another, that they almost become unrecognizable is properly depicted in this motion picture.

Now one may ask, what sets apart the 6th and the 5th? Well, the primary separation comes from the end goal itself or the dramatic need. See, Fast Five is about the crew robbing money to settle in life. Money is a goal or motivation that's commonly relatable which will get audiences rooting hard for. It's far more interesting, hence making it a better attention-grabber. Finding Letty and bringing her back into the family is a sound aim and the execution is done well, no doubt about it. But, just as a literal comparison, the latter isn't pounding enough as the former.

Also, you are prone to see many conveniences that aren't camouflaged as effectively as it was in Fast Five. Braga (John Ortiz) telling Brian (Paul Walker) the story of what happened to Letty previously is silly definitely, even though there are efforts to show the flashback visually. But, revealing exposition through dialogues is all about the choice of words. When done mostly properly like here, chances are it's going to be less obvious that it could have been originally. Also, the plot couldn't travel forward if this didn't happen. We know how she ended up with Shaw from Braga. Besides this, Letty losing her past comes off as cliché too. But, the moments used to jog her memory through street race & scar sharing session are nice. While we can't really say Shaw's appearance right after Dominic's & Letty's meeting is a convenience entirely since the antagonist has been monitoring her loyalty, Hobbs' coincidental drop of laser gun on Shaw is definitely an escape route for the script writers. This reminds a sequence from Rajinikanth's Baashha. Nevertheless, you could witness attempts by them to explain the sequence, by saying a tracker was used, amid it being forced. The twist with Riley (Gina Carano) is acceptable, since Shaw is few steps ahead all the time. Speaking of acceptable, Brian's change of ID to enter the States is okay too. Thank God, Letty's memory didn't return at the end of the movie. This is what we call walking right on the fine line.

Kid staring from a bus is a clip repeated from the previous film. How is it that Roman's car is the only automobile that's not crushed into thin plate by the tank at first encounter? Maybe because it's built for hits, unlike the regular ones on the road. Illegal interrogation method seems to be inserted for commercial inclusion more than anything. The characters could have been shown prone to injury a little, for vulnerability purposes. But then again, all these are tongue in cheek and as with television series, the longer you follow these characters with the same set of logics maintained, the better & firmer is the establishment ground. The rules are fixed long, long ago. Audiences are accustomed to the universe already due to the large amount of time spent here.

Superhero Dominic Toretto has another power added to his belt - surviving fire accident without a mark. His relationship with Elena (Elsa Pataky) was nodded before parting. Dwayne Johnson's body language & dialogue delivery as Hobbs, shines without mistake! There are many instances in this film one would realize how casual of an actor is Paul Walker. Good time allocation was given to develop the relationship between Gisele (Gal Gadot) and Han (Sung Kang). Her death at the end is really heartfelt! Roman's comedy works every single time, particularly the concession-seeking scene during a serious pre-mortem session. Paying homages to the franchise's staples or key events - underground car activity, Brian bleeding Stasiak's nose (Shea Whigham) and the 'man' reference by Gisele are fun reminiscences. Whenever the family strings are pulled, you're sold. It's nice to see a regathering of sorts back at the old house. The Mexicans from the previous 2 films however, could have been written off with more than just one sentence.

While the humor in Fast Five is weaved in to move the story forward, here it's used merely to massage the pacing & set the tone. Hobbs & Tej (Chris Bridges) bullying the salesman who looked down upon them, Han & Roman getting their asses handed to them and Hobbs crushing an officer's hand while shaking it are uproarious sequences! There's also an improvised & impromptu funny scene showing comparison with the exact set of evil twins, watch out for it! It's only natural when you realize even Letty has a pair on the other side - Riley at the end. Even the names rhyme. 'We Own It' as a recap is good, and the next picture's villain is introduced by seamlessly connecting past events in Tokyo Drift with present. If you notice, there are some filmmaking cues in the runtime. For example, the opposite of 'Open' door sign is shown through red fonts, signifying just that. Final dialogue exchange between Hobbs & Dom didn't need to be that theatric or cheesy.