Writer: Elaine Ewe

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Watch this if you liked: "Fast And Furious" franchise

At this point of time, "Fast And Furious" fans and the rest of the movie circuit can hardly expect anything new to the franchise, save for more tricked out cars, more outrageous stunts and maybe more shaved or bald action stars (see film's ending).

The film's premise is as basic as it gets: Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his professional criminal gang have retired after the events of "Fast Five", living comfortable lives as semi-millionaires. Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) is now a father while the rest are, well, living the high life that is appropriately summed up by the film's theme song itself, Wiz Khalifa's "We Own It ft. 2 Chainz".

However, their retirement is disrupted when US DSS agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) from "Fast Five" offers to clear the group's criminal records and allow them to return home in exchange for helping him to take down a skilled mercenary organization led by Owen Shaw (Luke Evans). Of course, this is not all that the group is in it for: they are also out to get Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), Dominic's former girlfriend who was believed to be dead back because she is family.

If that does not get your eyes rolling, then you are the type of audience that "Fast And Furious 6" panders to. There is plenty of testosterone to go around for the girls, in varying forms - blue-eyed model Brian O'Conner, gravel-voiced romantic Dominic Toretto, the Hercules-like Luke Hobbs and Welsh bad boy Owen Shaw, while for the men, there are the cars, cleavage and wriggling butts. "Fast And Furious 6" never tries to hide what it is; it even celebrates its status as a film for the 'cool' crowd. Nobody says anything without purpose, whether to incite laughter or play on sentimentality, but it feels forced at times. You'd think that after five films fans and viewers would get that they are family, in fact, one of the elements that make the film not feel like such a drag was the central characters' teamwork and bonding, but the film insists on having Toretto harp on and on about them being a family.

Delightful as they are in the film, familiar faces to the franchise such as Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson bring nothing new to their acting repertoire as they are merely reprising the same old character stereotypes that they have been playing for years. New cast additions Luke Evans and Gina Carano probably signed a contract that requires them to play the same characters they did in past films as well, because Evans's Owen Shaw is basically a mortal version of his Zeus in "Immortals", while Carano is a chattier version of Mallory Kane in "Haywire". At least in "Fast And Furious 6", Chris Morgan tries to get their money's worth by writing in some twists as opposed to the poor souls behind "The Expendables 2".

The cinematography for the film this time around made good use of the exotic locales as Toretto and his crew zips to Tokyo, London and Spain. More attention has been paid to the environment with long, continuous takes, but it also leaves the action scenes much to be desired. Most of them were cut too fast or angled poorly, so the races ended up being just a little more than two blurs zooming past landmarks. However, to justify for the loss in the sense of racing speed, director Justin Lin conceived of stunts that did not make it into the final cut of "A Good Day To Die Hard" or Bollywood films, such as Toretto smashing his car through the nose of a Soviet-era cargo aircraft during take-off, Shaw commandeering a tank and crushing cars along a Spanish highway and last but not least, a spectacular scene of Toretto flying through the car to catch Letty and landing unharmed on an engine of a car.

Overall, "Fast And Furious 6" is a frequently hilarious film that is more than often a result of the predictable story and cheesy dialogue, but it manages to avoid blowing itself up because of the aforementioned absurd action scenes and outrageous stunts and likable cast. Sequels are rarely rewarding, but Lin manages to make fans and casual viewers excited for the upcoming final (we hope!) instalment of "Fast And Furious", "Fast And Furious 7".

Cinema Online, 21 May 2013