‘Fast & Furious 6’ Opens To Mostly Positive Reviews

Fast & Furious 6, the latest installment in the high-octane car heist blockbuster franchise, opened May. 24 to mostly positive reviews from critics. It’s the kind of movie that earns its stars based on its ability to deliver on the promise of thrills from a high stakes game that culminates with a predicable ending. It’s not going to win an Oscar, but it’s going to please fans of big summer blockbusters.

In the words of David Hiltbrand of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the film is “saturated with more firepower, more havoc, more special effects, more pedal-through-the-metal chase scenes and far more property destruction. The plot and dialogue are still stilted and stupid, but that only proves that Justin Lin, who has directed the last four F & Fs, has his priorities straight.”

The Boston Globe’s Tom Russo would agree, writing, “For their own part, Vin Diesel and the “F&F” handlers seem eager to assert how they’ve molded a series of installments into, yep, a saga, complete with expansive, twisty continuity. “

Also a fan was The New York Times’ Neil Genzlinger. “Flashy smashes and a climactic sequence, in which the good guys try to prevent Shaw from taking off in an airliner by tethering their cars to it, make the movie a satisfying thrill ride, at least on a par with the earlier installments,” he wrote.

Steven Whitty of The Star-Ledger was not quite as impressed. Although he, like the other critics, could see that it was visually everything it needed to be, he couldn’t get over what he found to be shoddy acting. “[Michelle] Rodriguez plays the one emotion she can (sullen anger) with the one trick she has (take a beat, look down or sideways, then look back and slowly say the line),” he wrote. “Paul Walker still looks like a slightly surprised Abercrombie & Fitch model; Vin Diesel has all the expressiveness of a knuckle. The vein-popping Dwayne Johnson does the same shtick he's already done in at least three movies since January.”

Fast & Furious 6 begins with the crew, wealthy from their winnings from their last heist, on the lam from the law and scattered about the globe. But when Hobbs (Johnson) is led to the discovery of a deadly organization of mercenary drivers with Letty (Rodriguez) as their second-in-command, he’s forced to offer the group pardons so they can unite and help him take down the ruthless new organization.

Get Uinterview's FREE iPhone App For Daily News Updates here.

Get the FREE Uinterview iPad app here and watch our videos anywhere.