6 Fast 6 Furious

Alright, I'm not a major fan of most film reviews these days, so I'll try and do my best to improve upon the medium. Anyway, I just got back from the first showing of 6 Fast 6 Furious, and yeah it's definitely worth your time. However *places on movie critic cap* it does have some minor issues that leave it inferior to the near perfect 5 Fast 5 Furious. There will be no bloody spoilers so you can read this as is, or whatever don't.
The franchise has had a rather peculiar history, yet every film is immensely entertaining in its own goofball sort of way. Except Fast and Fourious which tended to drag the entire time, but it's creation is a touchstone of sorts for what a Fast and Furious film now is. The 7th installment is already in pre-production, and in related news, a conglomerate cocoa butter factory is already preparing another two metric tons of oil for The Rock's arms. Which, by the way, glisten with a remarkable sheen throughout the entire film. But, this is not a knock against the franchise, it is what the audience loves and expects, and Justin Lin has created a gloriously stupid, fun and self-aware action series.
Dialogue/Characters: All of the archetypes are set and everyone has their sort of "Characterizing this character because we have to at least attempt to pretend we are doing this." Tyrese only speaks in action one-liners, similar to Bruce Willis, and his phrases are surprisingly hilarious throughout. He merely states the obvious, or a hackneyed joke (which I like to do), but it works for reasons I am unsure of. Paul Walker tries his darndest to be a serious family oriented friend/street racer/criminal, and fails miserably, but, again, it's quite humorous. Unfortunately, there is not a scene that tops the amazing Diesel/Walker speech about their fathers in Fast 5. Sadface. But Walker kinda makes Keanu Reeves look like Daniel Day-Lewis, but it's perfect for this. The Rock just charismatically spews exposition, and is simply awesome at it. Frankly, The Rock should have this role in every film. His swagger and phrasing are simply delightful. Ludacris is meh, same with all of the other characters that I don't remember the names of. The villain is...serviceable I guess. He is ruthless, humorless and bland, but I guess he serves a purpose. And Big Diesel is well, you know, Vin Diesel. There are some surprise characters etc. but this paragraph is too long.
Action: The set pieces are truly something to behold. Endless destruction of cars, lots of 'splosions, and plenty of innocent bystanders who are mindlessly caught in the debris (you don't actually see people die, but it's certainly presumed). The film is very fast paced, jumping from set piece to set piece, with an innumerable number of creative stunts and Tyrese yelling about them. However, the editing is a little shoddy. It's not quite on the level of The Bourne Identity, but yeah there are a lot of jump cuts. ALOT. I'm too lazy to research how much of the action was cgi, but the stunt driving is excellent. Most importantly, the crazy/incredibly dumb acts of superheroism are truly breathtaking.
Plot: Uh, yeah.
Music: Like all of the films, it's terrible. It's awful rap/edm throughout, with some average scoring for dramatic scenes. A great soundtrack would really push it another level, but I can only wish.
NOS Factor: Needed wayyyyyyy more NOS.
Overview: Look, it's tongue-in-cheek, overdramatic, and endlessly entertaining. Which is all you can hope for in an action flick. Seeing it with a good audience helps, specifically one that understands when you're supposed to laugh. The franchise is now a dumbed down Ocean's Eleven, and I'm okay with that. The stakes are only going to get ridiculously bigger, the locations are going to get more absurd, and hopefully, it will continue to entertain.
Should you see it: YES
Rating: 8.9 NOS cans out of 10