Its Fast and Furious 006...but its 007 they're aiming for!

Rating: 9/10 (17 May 2013)

We here in London are getting it a week early as a present for it being shot here.
The "Fast and Furious" is one of those surprisingly long lasting pulp B- series that alongside "Underworld" "Resident Evil", "Mission Impossible" and "Scary Movie" are now into their second decade and umpteempth instalment. All of those have become family cottage industries for the reoccurring cast and crew, rather like the greatest long runner of them all James Bond, and it is a good advertisement for what this kind of "house" production style can achieve as opposed to the more cynical quick cash grab approach taken by bottom line studios and their disinterested hacks.
When the first "FF" came out in 2001 it was an intimate family-crime drama based around the then unknown Street Racing scene, with a couple of chases and races but mainly stayed on 2 legs. A dull sequel came in 2004 then a totally separate story strand in 2006 which nonetheless showed the technical competence of director Justin Lin and writer Chris Morgan, who became entrusted by the returning original cast (whose expected great careers had never really materialised!) with the transformation of the series into a sort of "Avengers" or "Mission Impossible" on wheels, a team of recurring characters who take on the big crime bosses street racer way. In that form we now have the 6th movie and 3rd "re-launch" instalment.
The trailers tell you pretty much the whole story & there is little to spoil here. Agent Hobbes (Dwayne Johnson) comes knocking to the team's door with the promise of pardons if they help bring down a crew of dangerous ex-British and Russian special forces operatives headed by Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) with the added enticement of the presumed dead Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) alive and well and running with them. Seems she did not die in "Fast N'Furious" but merely lost her memory in a classic case of plot convenient amnesia and was reshaped by Shaw, who was working with FNF's Mexican drug cartel villain Campos at the time, into his number 1 deadly driver girl. So the crew ups and moves to London where Shaw and co are stealing components for a deadly "Goldeneye" style EMP bomb that they will sell to the highest bidder or else! Cue chases and fist fights in Mayfair, Canary Wharf, Kings Cross, Piccadilly, Camden, Waterloo, and Battersea, even down the Underground, all great fun for Londoners like us after "Skyfall", and a nice touch of exotic foreignness for World audiences. The third act takes place in Spain, where a deadly battle on the suspended motorways of Las Canarias against a hijacked Tank gives way to a final showdown on and around a Russian Antonov transport plane attempting take off.
This unashamedly 007-esque climax appropriately tops off what is really a Spy adventure with the team working with the intelligence services to stop an evil villain and his high-tech scheme, making it different from the previous instalment (Oceans 11 in Rio) and the one before that (Revenge in Mexico). Same beats different set up – The key to a good franchise!
The film has several big action set pieces, starting with chase between the team in black BMWs trying vainly to capture Shaw and co in London, followed by a gun battle in Elephant & Castle and a nasty girl fight between the 2 toughest chicks around, Michelle Rodriguez and Gina Carano,(making good on Soderbergh's gamble to launch her as an action star) in the confined corridors of the Tube station. The Street racing roots are acknowledged with a car show-street race between Dom and Letty from Green Park through Piccadilly Circus to Battersea power station, then the Las Canarias tank-car battle, and eventually the airport- Antonov climax. All are slick and exciting, at least for those who enjoy exotic cars going fast.
The cast of returnees are all excellent, though some show fatigue, mainly Sung Kang's Han and Gal Gadot's Giselle, supposedly lovers but obviously not of this franchise anymore! Jordana Brewster's Mia has her baby and promptly misses out on most of the rest of the movie, as does previous love interest Brazilian cop Elena (Elsa Pataky) who becomes the spare wheel once Letty turns up (She is very noble and dignified about it of course). Evans is hardly tough guy material, but is actually surprisingly convincing as a cold blooded SAS hard man, reminiscent of Robert Shaw's Brit mercenary in "Taking of Pelham 123", while his crew is composed of generic stereotypes like evil Asian dude, big heavy Russian, cute blonde but vicious Russian girl, evil bald guy, evil bald black guy and evil handsome black guy. Carano does well in a supporting role, not having to carry a movie as she bravely attempted in last year's "Haywire", and her muscular brawn sets her well apart from the other supposedly tough chicks. Even Rodriguez is outmatched by a woman twice her size, but uses dirty tricks to even the odds in their various encounters.
This instalment is good dirty fun, and delivers what its inspiration, the 007 series, used to before they decided that it was all somehow beneath them (good luck on the future there guys!) The ending returns to the series roots, with the Toretto's Italian-American family values at play in a round table barbecue, but of course it won't end there, not yet at least.
The ending, which retcons "Tokyo Drift" (which finally happens in this continuity) sees the arrival of a new adversary for episode 7 – The Transporter!
Roll on Fast and Furious 7 – And along with Mission Impossible take 007's mantle and give us something to look forward to in a couple of years time!