Fast & Furious 6 (DVD REVIEW)
Fast & Furious 6
DVD
Review by Kam Williams
High-Octane
Sequel Features Performance by the Late Paul Walker
It’s
important to note that this edition of Fast & Furious is every bit as funny
as it is adrenaline-fueled. The film also features Paul Walker, who recently
perished in a fiery car crash in Los
Angeles. Most of the laughs come courtesy of comic
relief provided by Tyrese, who is back in an expanded role as trash-talking
Roman Pearce, a card-carrying member of the fugitive gang of auto thieves led
by macho Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel).
Like
a latter-day Stepin Fetchit, Roman revives a slew of offensive African-American
stereotypes, behaving in an alternately shallow, jive, flamboyant, lecherous,
felonious and cowardly manner, doing everything but put on a dress to make a
joke work. To Tyrese’s credit, the campy performance somehow works, either
because the character is so ingratiating, or because of the presence of several
respectable other blacks in the principal cast.
Whether
entertaining a bevy of scantily-clad beauties on his personal jet (with “It’s
Roman, bitches!” emblazoned on the fuselage) or making money literally rain out
of an ATM to the delight of a crowd of appreciative strangers picking the bills
up off the ground, the scene-stealing cynosure is always the center of
attention. Well, except during the action, chase and fight scenes when the
muscle cars and muscle heads take charge.
Other
than Tyrese’s, the acting is uniformly wooden and unconvincing. Not to worry,
this stunt driven-spectacular is all about the eye-popping special effects, and
boy does it deliver in terms of the wow factor!
The
plot of F&F 6 is little more than a lame excuse to pit an army of bad guys
against an army of worse guys, both as simplistically-drawn as tag teams of
opposing professional wrestlers. Here’s the storyline in 25 words or more.
Dominic coaxes his cohorts (Tyrese, Walker, Ludacris, Sung
Kang and Gal Gadot) out of retirement for one last
adventure, after rumors surface that his late-ex, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez),
might miraculously still be alive.
They
hatch a plan to rescue the damsel in distress who’s suffering from amnesia and
currently in the clutches of Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), a worthy adversary
specializing in vehicular warfare. His posse’s recent attack on
a Russian military convoy explains why Diplomatic
Security Service agent Hobbs
(Dwayne Johnson) is desperately seeking the assistance of Dominic’s crew.
They agree
on the condition that, should this mission succeed, they’ll be granted clemency
for the host of crimes committed in F&F episodes 1-5. Hobbs
okays the deal, and soon, a dogfight featuring fisticuffs, pyrotechnics and
plenty of cartoon physics unfold all over London,
involving not only souped-up autos and state-of-the-art gadgetry, but a tank
and a plane, to boot.
The epitome
of a mindless, high-octane diversion.
Excellent
(4 stars)
PG-13 for sexuality, profanity, mayhem, violence and intense
action
Running time: 131
minutes
Distributor:
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Blu-ray/DVD Combo
Pack Extras: Extended version of the film; Take Control; Planes, Tanks and
Automobiles; Gearhead’s Delight; The FLIP Car; Hand-to-Hand Fury; deleted
scenes; The Making of Fast & Furious 6; On the set with Vin; and a feature
commentary with director Justin Lin.
To see a trailer for Fast & Furious 6, visit:
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