Fast 6, Fast but not quite as Furious as the previous outing

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 2013)

The Fast and Furious franchise is one of the more strange ones – it improved the older it became. Coinciding with the 10 year anniversary of the The Fast and the Furious, Fast 5 marked the highpoint in the hugely popular series. Street racing culture was ditched in favor of a heist plot in Rio de Janeiro. To say it worked would be a massive understatement.
Fast 6 is continuing where its predecessor left off, although with a little twist. As it has already been explained in the trailers, the team surrounding Vin Diesel's Torreto character is asked to help Luke Hobbs (played by the ever charismatic Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) capturing criminal mastermind Owen Shaw (portrayed by Luke Evans), this time around in London.
The Good
Working in its favor is the wonderful backdrop provided by the London metropolitan area. It offers a lot of variety and distinguishes Fast 6 from the previous entry.
The chemistry between Torreto's crew is as good as it has ever been. Furthermore, The Rock really meshes well with any of the gang.
Tyrese, without going into detail the banter he shares with Ludicrous or the aforementioned Dwayne Johnson is worth the ticket admission alone. It's obvious that his character serves as comedic relief, as has been the case in Fast 5, but he has to have the funniest scenes in any of the major (non-comedy) blockbusters this year.
The action in the FF series was never realistic to begin with, so no surprises here. Still, it shouldn't take away from some impressive set- pieces. Justin Lin knows what he's doing.
The Bad
Fast 6 is too crowded; there are too many characters in the movie. Even the main villain, Owen Shaw, is underdeveloped, as is the Letty sub- plot. It just feels like the producers were gung-ho about reuniting the principle actors from the very first FF movie, at any cost.
Gina Carano, though she can definitely hold her own in the action scenes her acting is wooden at best. If pressed for a comparison – she'd be a bad female imitation of notorious stoneface Keanu Reeves. There's little to no facial expression. Frankly, her character is redundant. She may have pulled a half-decent performance in Haywire, but given the nature of her character (a stoic, hardened, operative) it played right to her strengths (or lack thereof?). At this rate it's hard to see her carrying a movie anytime soon.
Conclusion
Fast 6 is one of the better flicks in the franchise, perhaps the second best, but some way off Fast 5. One can't help but feel that the finished product has been rushed into production. A little fine-tuning (no pun intended) here and there would've served the movie better. The ending in particular is a little underwritten; it's not as glorious or as satisfying as Fast 5.