High octane, nonsensical, OTT, explosive fun

Rating: 7/10 (8 November 2014)

Carrying on the story from Fast Five, Dwayne Johnson's scene stealing federal agent reunites the heist team to take out a team of mercenaries. Those who saw Fast Five will have sensible expectations: Not that much plot of depth, loads of ridiculous set pieces, endless explosions and a total disregard of the laws of physics. However, if you thought F&F5 was silly, wait until you see this. Dwayne Johnson and other characters jump from a speeding car onto another without a scratch. A dangerous car race is held in London which would never be able to go ahead. Some preposterous set piece involving a tank. For 15 minutes, a massive set piece on a plane takes place while the plane and several cars hurtle down a runway. For 15 minutes. Empire did the calculations: The runway is 27 miles long. The longest runway in the world is 3.5 miles long. Just go with it. F&F6 has the subtlety of a truck ploughing through an explosives factory, but that's part of the fun. Stupidity has rarely been cooler.
However, this is a step down from number 5. It's once again too long, Vin Diesel is still a hugely dull lead and the script is weaker this time. There are plenty of humorous moments, but the script goes the motions and the humour is turned down this time. The plot can be convoluted some times as well. Those flaws do not spoil the experience and it's difficult not to be entertained as explosive set piece after explosive set piece lights up the screen. This is a very entertaining action film which also feels like it means well and genuinely just wants to be a great time. While in general it will be called a guilty pleasure, there is no shame in enjoying it. Justin Lin proves himself a good action director again, while the characters are still all likable and fun to watch. Dwayne Johnson is once again the highlight of the film and there are a couple of effective main character deaths towards the end. It's completely and utterly bonkers and in terms of action cinema this is definitely a good action film, and even though no runway is that long, the plane set piece is a blast.
7/10