Review: 'Fast & Furious 6', starring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker

There's an interesting contrast between the two major films due out this week: The Hangover Part III and Fast & Furious 6. Both are essentially homegrown franchises that the studios perhaps didn't expect much from, but have grown to become box office lynchpins and true success stories. But whereas The Hangover has failed to sustain the heights of the first film, Fast & Furious has only gotten stronger, and that's with more than its share of adversity. Vin Diesel stepped aside essentially for two movies, appearing at the back end of the sorely underrated Tokyo Drift, and that Justin Lin-directed cameo was like the Mets flipping on their rally caps. Through Lin's four movies, the franchise has only gotten bigger, better, and 'Furious 6' may be the best yet.

Let's be honest here, Iron Man and Man of Steel don't have a prayer of matching the "Holy !!!!" levels of awesome that 'Furious 6' achieves. It truly is a marvel, because frankly we wouldn't accept some of the ridiculous stuff that happens anywhere else but somehow Lin, Diesel, and the crew make all of the crash 'n burn spectacle seem....logical somehow. Ok, maybe logical is stretching it a little. Let's go with "acceptable", in the same way that comic book movie logic is acceptable.

Loyalty and family have been running themes since the very beginning, but they've never meant quite as much as they do this time. After the $100M Rio heist, Dom (Diesel), his new gal and ex-cop Elena (Elsa Pataky), his former nemesis turned bro-for-life Brian (Paul Walker), and Mia (Jordana Brewster) are retired and living the life of quiet solitude in the Canary Islands. Brian and Mia are new parents, but rather than feeling comfortable, there's still restlessness. Something's not quite right. Fortunately, before they have time to really ponder it, Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson, less sweaty this time) tracks them down and makes an offer. He'll give full pardons for Dom and his entire team if they help track down an ex-military officer named Owen Shaw (Luke Evans). Shaw has rounded up what amounts to the Bizaaro World version of Dom's crew, an evil squad of racers hitting classified installations across the globe. Most dangerous of all is Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Dom's girlfriend who presumably died a couple of movies ago. Remember that whole "loyalty" thing? "You never turn your back on family, even when they do", Dom growls.

Don't waste too much time thinking about...well, anything, but least of all this MacGuffin weapon Shaw is constructing. Focus instead on the band getting back together, forming what is essentially the Furious 6 version of the Avengers. The mouthy Roman (Tyrese Gibson), electronics wiz Tej (Ludacris), the stealthy Han (Sung Kang), and the sexy Gisele (Gal Gadot) all come when Dom calls, joined by Hobbs' right-hand lady, the bone-crunching Riley (Haywire star Gina Carano).

If Johnson was like a shot of nitrous in Fast Five, the latest newcomers are used just as well. Brought in for their physicality, the film features hand-to-hand combat on par with the behind-the-wheel action. Carano and Rodriguez, two of the big screen's baddest ladies, throw down in a brutal brawl far superior to Diesel and Johnson's tussle. Joe Taslim of The Raid: Redemption shows off his martial arts prowess in a thrilling, if a little comical, battle against the over-matched Han and Roman. Evans makes for a capable, if one-dimensional bad guy, although he's hamstrung by his lack of ambition. There's even a touch of art house cred thrown into the mix with the addition of Thure Lindhardt, the Indie Spirit-nominated actor from gay romance Keep the Lights On. He doesn't get much to do, but it's kind of a kick to see him in a film that is so blatantly homoerotic. The masculine overcompensation at play in the script won't come as a surprise to anybody who has seen even one of these movies before.

The film does bog down a little bit as Brian ventures off on a side mission where he runs into a couple of forgotten characters from a prior film. Their presence serves as a reminder of just how devoted franchise scribe Chris Morgan is to continuity, when probably nobody would expect him to be. Brian is a character who seems to be treading water, fading into the background opposite his flashier counterparts. It could just be the flat line readings by Walker, whose lazy "ride or die" could have been delivered by a corpse. Nobody is going to label Vin Diesel as any sort of thespian, but he makes for an effective tough guy with a soft spot, so that you believe Dom when he's (rather hilariously) trying to jog Letty's memory by racing through the city streets.

The cast (and Johnson's muscles) aren't the only thing that's bulked up since the last film. With Lin already bowing out of Fast & Furious 7(James Wan is taking over), he's upped the ante to eye-popping levels. Once the globe-hopping team hits Spain we're treated to a pair of amazing set pieces that make racing through the Brazilian streets dragging a bank safe look tame by comparison. Men fly between streaking muscle cars like Superman, while dodging the treads of an armored tank and oncoming traffic. Lin has grown more confident in his ability to control all of the moving parts any great action sequence requires. Compare the choreography of Tokyo Drift to the sheer audacity on display here and it's like night and day. But that's nothing compared to the finale, a flat-out bonkers, multi-faceted sequence involving literally every character, a jumbo plane, and the longest runway man has ever seen. What makes it so impressive, besides the bombast of it all, is that amidst the chaos we never lose track of the situation. It's an all-out demolition derby that is as thrilling as anything you're likely to see all year. The twists, and there a couple of great ones, are handled perfectly and will have fans salivating over what's on the horizon.

So what's the ultimate verdict? Fast & Furious 6 is the high-octane event of the summer. Period. You'll probably find many critics who write it off as "dumb fun", and while it's certainly over-the-top and burns rubber all over the laws of physics, that may be doing the entire franchise a disservice. These are films that recognize their audience and what it is they crave, delivering on that with pinpoint accuracy time and time again. There's a certain intelligence and brilliance to that which others would be wise to emulate.