By the time a franchise has reached its sixth instalment, you welcome it like an old friend and if it delivers on its brand promise, you are quite happy. When it came out in 2001, no one could have imagined a story of street car racing would have this kind of staying power. But the Fast and Furious franchise has stayed and the end of 6 leaves an opening for a sequel.
The brand promise of testosterone, hot wheels, hotter babes and super stunts is delivered with guts and gumption. All the cast from Vin Diesel as Dom to Paul Walker as Brian, Dwayne Johnson as Hobbs, Michelle Rodriguez as Letty to Tyrese Gibson as Roman reprise their roles. Luke Evans as the chief baddie, Shaw, is the new entrant.
The story involves Hobbs asking Dom’s crew for help to nail Shaw, a former Special Forces man now up to no good. In return, Hobbs promises that Dom and company can return home and the cases against them would be dropped.
The set pieces are jaw-dropping — that plane and tank numbers were awesome. The dialogue is suitably droll — “it is not a plane, it’s a planet” is just one of them. That snobby auctioneer being put in his place was also fun. Justin Lin, who directed the Fast and Furious movies from the third instalment, keeps things moving at a spanking pace. The humour is kind of patchy but passable.
After all the thunder and fury of the movie including that trick ending, there is only one question left. No, not where are we going to have dinner tonight (Andhra Chinese naturally), but can anyone have the kind of muscles Dwayne Johnson has on his arm? Like, really have them?
Genre: Action
Director: Justin Lin
Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Luke Evans
Storyline: Dom and friends have to take down a mercenary to get amnesty
Bottomline: A goofy ride
