Fast & Furious 6

Fast & Furious 6: Because they're not going to stop until... well, they're just not going to stop, O.K.?

Fast & Furious 6

Warning: large plot holes in the road

When it was revealed at the end of Fast Five that anti-hero Dominic Toretto's on-again-off-again girlfriend Letty Ortiz was still alive, you knew Fast & Furious 6 was going to be the Star Trek III: The Search for Spock of the Fast and Furious franchise.

And frankly, that's kind of refreshing. For a series that constantly emphasizes the importance of family, a film where they are trying to track down one of their own resonates more than yet another film where the Furious gang has to take down an international drug cartel.

The film opens with the "family" of Furious drivers scattered across the globe until DSS Agent Hobbs (The Rock), convinces them to help take down international criminal Owen Shaw, who is stealing military weaponry (for reasons that are never explained) by showing them evidence that their fellow family member Letty, missing and presumed deceased, is actually working for Shaw.

This leads to a ton of car chases, and (thankfully) to an actual street race (between Dom and Letty) the first we've seen in the series in a while. But the action sequences are all strung together with this loose plot-hole filled spy story that doesn't hold up to much scrutiny. For example, somehow by paint scrapings from the floor of the bad guys previous vacated location they are able to determine the bad guys next location. Not using trace evidence to figure out where they've been, but where they're going to be - it makes no sense.

At another point they capture the bad guy but are forced to release him because his men have a hostage... then moments later they attempt to recapture him even though nothing has changed in those few moments - the bad guys still have the hostage, so why are they trying to catch him, or why did they let him go to begin with? They just uncuff him with no guarantee of a hostage release, let him go, then immediately start chasing him down again. This is especially confusing since letting him go meant a loss of the deal that cleared their names (the deal they were promised in exchange for capturing him) with nothing gained in return. Again, it makes no sense.

And that's just two of many plot holes. But let's face it, The Fast and the Furious movies have never been strong on plot - even by action movie standards. And when it comes to action Fast & Furious 6 doesn't disappoint - although someone needs to tell their editor to slow down the rapid-fire editing of fight scenes so we can actually see what's going on. Other than that - it delivers all the gunfights, car chases and physics-defying stunts you could want.

Indeed, for sheer entertainment value, Fast & Furious 6 is probably the best Fast & Furious film (excluding the shorts) since The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Possibly because you actually seem to care about the characters for a change. The emphasis is on the team as a family; and with two Caucasians, two Latinas, two African-Americans, an East Asian, a jew, a multiracial guy, and now a Pacific Islander, you can't help but think this family is somehow a microcosm of America, and we can't help but want to see them succeed and be reunited.

The Good:

• The Rock's acting is much improved over Fast Five
• The action scenes in the Canary Islands
• far more ethnic and gender balanced than most Hollywood blockbusters 

The Bad:

• so many plot holes

Stuff to watch for:

• "Ride or die!"
• Three references to rival franchise The Avengers
• A post-credits sequence that finally explains one of the series' biggest mysteries
• A Jason Statham cameo

The Verdict:
*** out of *****