It did not let the franchise down, Fun, action, speed...

Rating: 7/10 (9 June 2013)

First of all, to all the critics. The director never claimed he was making an intelligent, thought provoking movie, he promised an action packed movie made with cars. If you want a thought provoking, artistic film, go see Stoker or Gatsby. Now to my review.
The film still centres around the main characters from the last film with a welcome addition of Luke Evans (Jason Shaw) and the return of Michelle Rodriguez (Lettie)and surprisingly Gina Carano (Riley).
The bad thing about the film was its blatant attempt to insult the intelligence of viewers with its obvious disregard for reality, I mean how long was that runway? What kind of FBI powers allow you to stab two people in solitary and get out of the US and back to Spain without attracting attention? These holes are evident all over the plot. This was not the case with the other films in the franchise. The film was loaded with every stereotype available from the silly English westend salesman to the "all Black people love bling" story. This was a poor attempt at humor, my guess is, this was targeted at the growing British underclass as the film setting was London. I am sure US viewers would find it simply old fashioned and distasteful.
The good things pretty much allow you to ignore the bad. The performances from Luke Evans (Zeus in the Immortals) was amazing and convincing, a real baddie, something the franchise hasn't really had. The action scenes were truly explosive, great car chases and quality fight scenes, Justin Lin clearly paid more attention to these than to any other aspect of the film. There was definitely less skin on show so it was a welcome change for the older crowd who are not raging with hormones.
If you want to see an action flick that keeps you on the edge of your seat with an almost predictable ending, then you won't be disappointed. The franchise is set already for the sequel in 2014 with Jason Statham, my guess, it will go down hill from there, this is the point when decreasing returns to scale kicks in. All in all a great watch and for £9.50, it will be dollars well spent.