Fast & Furious 6
Tagline: All Roads Lead to This
You don’t exactly need to be Einstein to work out that there have twice as many Fast & Furious movies as there have been Hangovers. And in director Justin Lin, the franchise has a familiar face behind the camera, as he has helmed the previous three installments. TIME’s Richard Corliss hailed the most recent, 2011s Fast Five, as the “best in the series” so at least one critic was presumably keen to see where Lin was going to take the franchise next.
Lin has managed to assemble the likes of Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, and Gina Carano in a lavish, visually impressive action romp around various locations. Johnson plays special agent Luke Hobbs, who recruits Diesel (Dominic Toretto) and his crew, which includes Walker (Brian O’Conner) to take down a gang led by ex-SAS officer Owen Shaw (Luke Evans). Expect the chase scenes to be unlike anything you’ve ever witnessed on celluloid. Probably.
TIME’s Corliss has maintained his enthusiasm for the endeavour, even going so far as stating that, “If you’re like me, you’ll be wanting F&F 7 (which will be directed by Saw auteur James Wan) to premiere not on July 11, 2014, but right now, this second.” Corliss isn’t the only reputable critic to be enjoying the heck out of the movie. “The latest installment is a movie much more entertaining than the churlish might expect for one with “fast” or “furious” or “six” in the title,” notes the Village Voice. And the Guardian admits “this film’s got a fair bit in the tank; it’s silly but enjoyable.” But sister publication, the Observer, can’t help but snipe that “the endless chases, stunts and fights are as spectacular and preposterous as the occasional verbal exchanges are sentimental and childish.”