Upping the Ante

Rating: 9/10 (13 April 2017)

I've said it many times before, but one of the main reasons why the F&F movies failed to reach mass appeal before Fast Five was because of their villains. They were always forced to take on low end drug dealers and people who have little to do with their line of work; driving cars really fast and stealing things. With Fast & Furious 6, the team gets to take on Owen Shaw & his own crew, who are equally as good at doing crazy stuff on wheels.
Dom regathers his team, including Brian, Han, Gisele, Roman, and Tej, after Hobbs comes to him with an offer he can't refuse. The chance to save Letty from Shaw and take him down, in exchange for full pardons all the way around. After quite a few films on the run and unable to return to his home in Los Angeles, there's no way he could turn down this opportunity, even if it meant going up against his former girlfriend thought dead, Letty.
Fast & Furious 6 has even more muscle, explosions, faster cars, and just downright insanity. But it isn't as clean cut or polished as Fast Five. Granted, a movie like this doesn't necessarily need to have a concise story or developed characters, but they've done a much better job at doing those things within the last few films. The 6th film feels a little slower and maybe even a little too long, with the end product still putting a huge smile on my face. But when comparing the two, a second watch definitely exposes some of this film's minor flaws.
The one thing this film, and pretty much all of the films since 4, is that each keeps topping itself. Just when you think they couldn't top stealing a vault and dragging across the streets of Brazil, they take down planes with cars. The tone deafness of the series is gone and the new breed of F&F is here to stay. The crazy thing is, you buy into all of it. I bought into the family from the beginning and I one-hundred-percent buy into the series embracing it's goofiness. The film also manages to implement more humor into the 6th film which is something the franchise has been missing. Or at least, humor that actually makes people laugh. I won't count those horrible attempts at humor in the 2nd film.
What makes this film stick out his that it's the first time the crew gets to go up against an entirely new crew with the same set of skills. Luke Evans is great as Owen Shaw, The Rock has never been better, and who doesn't love watching Ludicrous and Tyrese Gibson crack one- liners at each other. Better yet, every word out of Vin's mouth is a one-liner. Overall, the ante is once against raised and the series punches its way through another smash hit. Fast & Furious 6 is an insane thrill ride from the beginning to end.
+Owen Shaw
+Team vs Team
+Rock & Vin working together
+Always pushing the genre and series to a new level
-A bit slower & a tad too long
9.1/10