FAST & FURIOUS 6 – The Blu Review

The Movie:

Writing about the film is, unfortunately, a sad occasion. On November 30, 2013, a mere 10 tens before the release of FAST & FURIOUS 6 hits DVD and Blu-ray, actor Paul Walker died in a car crash. Walker, who played cop-turned-street racing criminal Brian O’Conner in the ongoing franchise, was only 40 years old when he died. Whether or not this effects any future sequels, of which a seventh film had at leats been rumored, is yet to be seen, but I imagine a combination of financial success of FF6 combined with the level of fandom for Walker and the series will ultimately determine where the series goes from here. With that said, let’s discuss FF6…

Fresh off the heels of FF5, FAST & FURIOUS 6 more or less picks up where FF5 left off. The crew, led by Dominic (Vin Diesel) has gone there separate ways, each of them loaded — as in rich — and living a “good” life, except for one. At the end of FF5, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is thought to be dead, leaving both Brian and Dominic particularly devastated. As we soon find out, not everything went down quite as expected at the end of FF5. Convenient. Meanwhile, Dominic is living out the simple, albeit wealthy life, somewhere exotic. In other parts of the world, hard-nosed Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is knee-deep in a new pursuit, this time hunting down an new, more high-tech band of street racing criminals, led by Shaw (Luke Evans).

In true genre fashion, FF6 plays on the old-fashioned “good guys work with good bad guys they could never catch to capture the worse bad guys they need to stop” formula. This approach works reasonably well, with FF-veteran director Justin Lin implementing enough style and energy into the film to sufficiently overshadow the lack of original screenwriting and, after six films, any hope of expecting any additional amount of real character development. Truly, these characters are basically caricatures of themselves, having become such stereotypes of their own making that the film actually takes a tongue-in-cheek jab at itself when Roman (Tyrese Gibson) comments on how the gang of street racers they are helping Hobbs catch are basically their evil twins.

With everyone effectively retired, how does Hobbs get the gang back together for one more job, and a job working with him at that? This is where Letty comes into the picture. They found her, alive, and apparently working for their evil twins. FF6 begins with a massive mess in Moscow where a military convoy was taken out in grand fashion. Yes, by a gang of criminal street racers. Upon reviewing the utterly endless amounts of CCTV footage available, courtesy of a very watchful Russian government, Hobbs discovers Letty is somehow involved and uses this to lure Dominic back in, which therefor includes the others be default. At this point, the typical structure of your average criminal heist film ensues. The targets are researched, plans are made, initial plans fail, new plans are made, and so on. For the most part, FF6 plays out somewhere in between the best and worst films in the franchise. There little we haven’t seen before, but the film is still entertaining on a level of popcorn-munching, mindless entertainment. Then, it begins to crumble around the edges like a stale cookie…

Let me set up the scene: massive car chase, multiple cars, highway, big truck, fortified military tank… wait, what? Yes. What begins as a high-adrenaline multi-car chase suddenly erupts into Shaw piloting a massive tank with absolute disregard for the human tomato sauce he’s making each time he rolls over a car like it’s an empty beer can on the street. Honestly, I must admit there is a part of me, watching the carnage and the oddly humorous aspect of what’s happening that thinks “Whoa, dude! Awesome!” Then, I realize how silly the whole thing truly is just in time to witness the harrowing — if not completely over-the-top and humanly impossible — rescue of Letty by the seemingly super-human, invincible Dominic. I have now been brought back to reality by something so far removed from reality that the original effect of this scene cancels itself out.

As I mentions before, once things begin to crumble with FF6, they never really stop. What began as a fairly respectable addition to the franchise continues to prove how utterly cliche it has become when Dominic faces off with Shaw on a massive Russian cargo plane, mid-take off… on what must be the world’s longest runway. Seriously, as long as this scene went on, and the plane taxiing to take off speed the entire time. Accompanying Dominic is Hobbs, who himself takes on, of course, the evil gang’s massive meat-head Klaus (Kim Kold) who is as stereotypically muscle-bound as his name is German. This guy looks kind of like Brock Lesnar, which is fitting, seeing as the fight the ensues between him and Luke “The Rock” Hobbs resembles a WWE main event more than it does any real-life altercation between a cop and a criminal, complete with flying clotheslines and various stylish body slams. In the end, with the help of multiple vehicles harpooned to the wings, the giant plane crash lands and bursts into flame. Gisele (Gal Gadot), the new sexy member of Dominic’s crew, does not survive the epic plan battle, and Dominic himself is thought by his followers to have perished in the flaming plane’s remains… no, wait, who is this figure emerging unscathed and still very much macho and upright from the burning destruction? I guess you’ll have to watch FAST & FURIOUS 6 to find out.

The Extras:

FAST & FURIOUS 6 on Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD-Ultraviolet Combo hits store shelves Tuesday, December 10th. The packaging is straight-forward for this format, slipcase included. For the more discerning collector, seek out the Steelbook edition, available at Target and on Amazon.com

The Blu-ray Exclusive features include:

• Extended Version of the Film
• Take Control — Director Justin Lin, Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Michelle Rodriguez appear throughout the film with reflections and observations about making FF6.
• Hand to Hand Fury — Detailed look at the rehearsals, choreography, stunt work and filming of the fight scenes in FF6.
• Gearhead’s Delight — Highlights the cars featured in FF6.
• The Flip Car (actually, the “flip car” is one of the cooler parts of the film)
• Planes, Tanks and Automobiles — Behind-the-scenes look at how key scenes were accomplished.

Additional Features:

• Deleted Scenes
• On the Set with Vin — Vin Diesel talks through one of his upcoming stunts while on location.
• The Making of Fast & Furious 6
• Feature Commentary with Director Justin Lin

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars