After only a few weeks of release, Justin Lin‘s latest Fast and Furious film, Fast and Furious 6, is well on its way to being the franchise’s highest grossing entry. Pretty impressive for the sixth film in a series that started as a small, family-centric action film filled with green and orange cars. The latest film ups the ante with action and effects that push the bounds of our imaginations and believability. Things get so crazy this time around you have to check any expectation of reality at the door.
Part of the reason the Fast and Furious franchise has thrived under Justin Lin is that the director prides himself on practical action. When you see a tank crushing cars, they actually had a tank crushing cars on set. But in Fast and Furious 6‘s massive finale, Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson and the crew didn’t really bring down a huge aircraft…did they? Check out a brand new video detailing the scene’s effects below. Read More »
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Ask most people what they know about The Phantom of the Opera and they’re likely to reference the Broadway musical. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s adaptation of the novel by Gaston Leroux is far and away the best known version of the 1909 story about mysterious man in an Opera House who falls in love with a new actress.
Long before that version of the story hit the stage, Phantom was adapted into a well-received 1925 silent film starring Lon Chaney. That version has recently seen a resurgence because of its connection to the Universal Monsters series, and also a timeless aesthetic which lends itself to gorgeous posters.
Of course that’s where I was going with that, right? Dark Hall Mansion has revealed a brand new poster in their ongoing Seminal Film Series: The Phantom of the Opera by Laurent Durieux. It’s a beautiful and evocative representation of the film and goes on sale next week. Read More »
Cast your mind back to the release of 2 Fast 2 Furious, a film that was derided from nearly all corners, and then look at this week’s release of Fast & Furious 6. It took a decade, but Universal’s car-racing franchise has evolved into “event” status. Whether you like the films or not, there’s no arguing that under the stewardship of Justin Lin, who took over as director with the third movie, this series of films has exploded as a fan favorite. Lin knows how to manage action, and he’s had a long-term plan to consistently up the ante on that front.
Much more importantly, Lin realized that consistent characters are what bring people back to the films. He talked Vin Diesel back into the fold and then developed a suite of characters to fill out four individual films that ultimately work as one interlocked narrative. It’s an action-movie soap opera, sure, but one featuring precisely the sort of reliance on character that very few other action series get right.
The sixth film pushes outward in every direction: there are more characters and amped-up drama, and the action setpieces are more improbable and ridiculous than ever. Fast & Furious 6 won’t ever be held up as a major moral statement, but there’s a lot to be said for the series’ general tendency to trumpet values in friendship and family. There’s a sense of values here that could also be present in, say, the Die Hard movies, if the last couple McClane sequels weren’t such botch jobs.
With Fast & Furious 6 in theaters now, we’re curious to know how you feel about the film. Does the action work, and do the interlinked stories and characters provide enough meat to flesh out all the time between setpieces? Let us know in the comments below, where spoilers are allowed and encouraged. Read More »
“All roads lead to this.” That’s the tagline for Fast and Furious 6 and it’s appropriate on several different levels. The film is the final series entry from director Justin Lin, who picked up a fledgling franchise and carried it into the blockbuster realm. It also marks the culmination of a story that began at the end of Tokyo Drift, when a cameo from Vin Diesel signaled the shift from a set of loosely connected films to a tightly intertwined set of stories and characters.
Finally, Fast and Furious 6 marks the total obliteration of any semblance of reality or logic in the franchise.
Speeding through a city with a huge safe in tow seemed crazy in Fast Five. In Fast and Furious 6 Lin expands the action to absurd proportions, creating set pieces and action beats that defy physics and coherence. Yet it all works to purring perfection. After five movies, all roads indeed lead to this madness. Read More »
Posted on Friday, May 24th, 2013 by Angie Han
It’s more or less impossible to reboot a massively popular franchise for the big screen without drawing the ire of a few fans, but one major criticsm plaguing Star Trek Into Darkness in recent days has nothing to do with J.J. Abrams‘ Klingon redesign or use of parallel timelines. Midway through the film, there’s a brief scene in which the character Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) strips down to her underwear for no apparent reason. Some fans called filmmakers out for being sexist, and so far writer Damon Lindelof has stepped up to offer his apologies.
The minor controversy was fresh in my mind when I went to go see Fast & Furious 6, which, as you’d expect, outdoes Star Trek Into Darkness‘ tiny sliver of cheesecake on every level. All of the female stars of Fast & Furious 6 are conventionally attractive to begin with, and none shy away from wearing form-fitting outfits or showing off a bit of cleavage. Additionally, scantily clad female extras are used in several sequences as little more than set decoration. And yet I walked away from Fast & Furious 6 thinking that director Justin Lin and his crew could teach the Star Trek team a thing or two about portraying female characters on screen.
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Though the second Fast and Furious movie was a hit, it left fans with a bad taste in their mouths. Star Vin Diesel didn’t return, the chemistry was slightly off and the action didn’t live up to the first film. Enter Justin Lin. With the third film, he didn’t exactly win (most) fans back, but he brought Diesel back and began a mythological arc that culminates this weekend in Fast and Furious 6. Over the course of four films, Lin has turned the franchise into a legitimate, studio saving blockbuster while simultaneously elevating the spectacle to totally different levels.
With Fast and Furious 6, Lin does that again but now he’s leaving the franchise behind him. However he leaves behind a newly rejuvenated fan base, a laundry list of beloved characters and a complete story with room to expand.
We spoke to Lin on the eve of Fast and Furious 6 and discussed those things as well as the wacky timeline, building a mythology, filming the street race scenes, trailers spoiling the action, shooting 6 and 7 back to back and and the all-important Corona budget. Read More »
Whenever the topic of “Best Jean Claude Van Damme Movie” is on the table, someone always brings up Timecop. Deservedly so. The 1994 film, directed by Peter Hyams, told the story of a time travelling police force and one officer (JCVD himself) who tries to bring down a politician abusing the time-hopping technology. It’s a solid flick, based on a Dark Horse Comics publication, and led to a TV show and a direct-to-DVD sequel.
So what’s the next step for a generally well-regarded sci-fi action film with a fairly unique plot that’s already proved successful over multiple mediums? Reboot it, of course. That’s exactly what Universal Pictures is doing with Timecop. Read More »
Colin Trevorrow‘s Jurassic Park 4, originally scheduled for release Summer 2014, is currently locked in a holding pattern. The studio and director agreed taking more time to craft the film was the best way to ensure it will be the sequel we all want. But what does that mean exactly? Quality is obviously the number one priority, but how will a film almost fifteen years in the making take up the mantle left by directors Steven Spielberg and Joe Johnston?
One of the franchise’s stars, Sam Neill, might have a clue. The actor who portrayed Alan Grant in both the first and third installments said in a new interview he doesn’t think he’ll be asked to return because he hears the new film is a “reboot.” Read More »
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