Posted in: Movies, Universal | Tagged: bleeding cool, Fast & Furious 6, fast and furious, film, movies

Fast & Furious 6 Cements the Franchise as Utterly Bonkers Heist Movies

It's been a while, but we're back with the "not-so-fast-Fast and Furious rewatch" series, and this time it's the last film before we go back and hit Tokyo Drift. Remember, we're going in canon order and not release order. In case you're new around here, this is only the most recent in Eden's epic Fast and Furious not-so-fast rewatch series. Now, without further ado, let's jump in and meet the newest foil for our crew of heisting heroes: Owen Shaw (Luke Evans).

Of course, Fast 5 marked the transition of the franchise from drag racing and car culture into full-on heists, and that is carried over into Fast & Furious 6 (aka Furious 6 – I mean, where else do you go after Fast 5?). Dom (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker), and crew are called in by Agent Hobbs (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) to stop baddie criminal ringleader Shaw. And oh, no! He has an amnesia-d Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) under his evil control!

This movie was a little less all over the place than the last one, but I attribute that to the fact that Fast 5 was all about setting up a different direction for the franchise, and now this one had things ironed out a bit more. Though what I wasn't a fan of for sure was 1) how they did Gisele dirty (I mean, come on! You have Gal Gadot in your franchise…and you just kill her off?!) and 2) How every two seconds they felt the need to mention Tokyo and foreshadow Tokyo Drift. Yes, we know it's next in canon order – you don't have to keep telling us in the film that Tokyo has a great car scene; we should go to Tokyo and check it out. Oh, hey, have you heard Tokyo is great? WE GET IT, THANKS.

Aside from that, the plot is full of more holes than a block of Swiss cheese, but what did you expect at this point? It's the sixth film in a franchise specifically designed to appeal to teenage boys and centered around fast cars and hot women. That said, though, the franchise is far from being a bastion of feminism, though at least we have 62% fewer crop tops and string bikinis, and the female characters have slightly more agency now than in the early films of the series. I mean, Letty even kicks Dom's ass in this one! We stan our newly un-fridged queen!

For me, this film marks the start of the franchise as I fell in love with it; it's about heists, a little less about objectifying women, and has clear-cut good guys and bad guys (well, mostly). It's like a graduated children's sitcom in that you know real life doesn't work like that, the people are all so very pretty and over-acting, and the plot at times is just a vehicle for drama and action – but we don't care. Why? Because it's fun, fast, and furious all at the same time.

Now, do you think they maybe want us to watch Tokyo Drift after that? For whatever reason, I'm getting that impression…

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