Fast & Furious 6

Dominic "Dom" Toretto, Brian O'Conner, and the rest of their group of adrenaline junkies/international criminals have traded in their fast-paced lifestyle and settled down in Rio de Janeiro. They're all enjoying retirement until out of the blue Luke Hobbs, the federal agent that has been chasing them, catches up to them. Instead of arresting and turning them in, however, Hobbs give Dom a proposition - help Hobbs catch a former Special Ops officer named Owen Shaw who has gone rogue trying to build a high tech bomb with the ability to wipe out an entire country's communications. As leverage for their help, Hobbs drops an even bigger bomb (metaphorically speaking) - Letty, Dom's former girlfriend, is alive and working for Hobbs. Dom feels he has to find out for himself if Letty is still alive so he, along with the rest of his team, agrees to help Hobbs catch Shaw.

Fans of the Fast and Furious franchise who might be worried the series might be losing steam need not worry anymore. Fast and Furious 6 is still a high octane thrill ride that is well worth the price of admission. It doesn't quite beat Fast Five as the best in the series, but it comes pretty darn close. The one thing I've loved about the Fast and Furious franchise (besides the really cool fast cars) is the theme of family is consistent throughout the franchise. It is still the case here. Dom feels it's his duty to go after Letty and bring her back home where she belongs. Even when she initially rebuffs him he still pursues her in the hopes of her returning to her roots. Dom emphasizes that "you don't turn your back on family, even when they do."

The things I haven't liked about the series (and is frequently the case here) is the over-the-top stunts that don't really seem humanly possible to attempt. Probably the biggest moment that had me going "how is that possible?" is a stunt where Dom's group is on the highway and out of the blue two characters jump from opposite sides of a bridge off the roof of their cars and safely land on top of another car before either of them were smashed by a tank. There's another scene shown in the trailer where several cars take down a 747 by shooting cables onto the wings and attach the cables to their cars to bring it down.

Despite the many elaborate stunts that shouldn't be humanly possible, Fast 6 is a fantastic thrill ride with a positive message about family that is sure to make fans of the series happy and ready for the next (and final) installment.