Furious 6 (2013)

	Also Known As: Fast & Furious 6
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Justin Lin (Fast & Furious 3-4-5-6-9-10, Star Trek Beyond)
	Actors: Vin Diesel (Pitch Black, Riddick, xXx), Paul Walker (Pleasantville, Timeline, Into the Blue), Dwayne Johnson (Rampage, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), Jordana Brewster, Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 08.01.2020, Blu-ray, 40" TV screen.
Synopsis: While Dom (Diesel) and O'Connor (Walker) enjoy their freedom, Hobbs (Johnson) finds them with a mission they cannot refuse.
Review: You know that the franchise has increased its ambitions (and budget) when most of a movie takes place in London, after the USA, Mexico and Brazil. After two movies trying find the good recipe (Fast and Furious and Fast Five), they finally did it, and I find this movie the best of the franchise until this point. I may have to revise the ratings of all movies depending on what comes next. Special effects: good all-along. Team assembling: seamless Bad-ass fist-fights: Dwayne Johnson starts to find his place Universe-building: done with movies that tie in to the previous and next one (even to older ones, see the time-altering post-credit scene) Car chases with new models: of course, this time with an excuse to run older cars in another city environment Family: yes, against the rest of the world Bad guy: resourceful Twists: some Fan-service: you bet, with the return of former cast Jokes: no more than needed Scale: the World is not enough Basically all the flaws from the previous movies are fixed, and don't tell me that a bigger budget only did that. In this movie I found that all the characters have a well-balanced presence and no amount of money can guarantee a good screenplay and director. For example the mini-story between Han and Gisele is OK and not distracting. Tyrese Gibson is more at ease and does a nice meta-joke (comparing the two teams). Tej is the tech guy. Hobbs sees the good in this band of criminals. Walker is still not acting good but it fits his character by now. The story between Dom and Letty is well-done and even though they play the classic memory-loss trick, it is not resolved by a hit to the head but actions and feelings give it a meaning. And we get to see Vin Diesel as an actor more than usual. One thing that can disturb the delicate audience is the exaggeration in the stunts, I mean how many times can a guy take a bullet or get hit by a moving car on the highway without feeling a thing. Also how long can an airport runway be? I didn't mind, as it goes with the rest of the story. I liked the fake ending a-la-Bad Boys 2, and was jumping on my seat as much as our heroes did (Tyrese again) at the apparition of the tank. Awesome. All in all a great action movie. I have to try and slow down the pace at which I watch those movies or they may feel too repetitive. The next two movies were not directed by Justin Lin, let's see how they fare.
Rating: 7 /10