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 »
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“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 »
When do Man of Steel tickets go on sale to the general public? What did Kevin Feige have to say about possible Phase Three films Doctor Strange, Inhumans, Runaways and more? Which character does Dwayne Johnson want to play in the Marvel Universe? Where can you see a live Iron Man 3 art discussion? What are the best superhero board games? Are S.H.I.E.L.D. and Pulp Fiction related in anyway? Read about all this and more in today’s Superhero Bits. Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, May 14th, 2013 by Angie Han
While Dwayne Johnson‘s plans to play DC’s Lobo were dashed earlier this year, he could still find his way to another superhero movie if Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige has his way.
I think yeah, I mean his name has come up in the past. I’m a gigantic fan of his, I think he’s an incredible – I might have met him once a long time ago, but I haven’t really met him. I don’t really know him – but I think he’s an unbelievable personality and an unbelievable sort of force of nature. He’s awesome in Pain & Gain, he was great in G.I. Joe, he’s really kind of an amazing human being. His Twitter’s always cool and he promotes the hell out of everything he does. I would love him to be part of the Marvel universe somewhere, someday.
Johnson would be a fun addition to the MCU, though Feige doesn’t say exactly how the actor might fit in. Johnson has previously expressed his interest in playing Luke Cage, though as far as we know there’s no Luke Cage project in the works right now. (Well, S.H.I.E.L.D. rumors notwithstanding.) Who would you like to see him play? [Collider]
After the jump, Dominic Cooper is returning for the Captain America sequel, and Mark Ruffalo talks The Avengers 2 and Iron Man 3.
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Posted on Thursday, May 2nd, 2013 by Angie Han
We have a particularly murderer-heavy edition of TV Bits today, with news about Dexter, Hannibal, and The Killing. After the jump:
- Dallas, Veep, Rectify, and Orphan Black get renewed
- Vampire Diaries spinoff gets green light
- Julian Sands joins Dexter in mystery role
- Downton Abbey gets its first black character
- John Oliver will host The Daily Show this summer
- Bryan Fuller has Pushing Daisies movie ideas
- NBC affiliate axes Hannibal
- The Killing‘s new mystery will be solved within the season
- FX and Seth Rogen develop Bigfoot comedy
- Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg, and Peter Berg team for HBO
- Alex Gibney will direct Frank Sinatra documentary
- The Arrested Development doc hits tomorrow; see more Season 4 stills
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Posted on Monday, April 29th, 2013 by Angie Han
Joss Whedon is still pretty bummed about what happened with Alien: Resurrection. Also after the jump:
- Jack Reynor talks Transformers; Megan Fox won’t return
- Michael Bay reveals some shooting locations and a runtime
- Producer claims Dwayne Johnson will be back for Fast 7
- Jurassic Park 4 and Pirates 5 might head to Hawaii to shoot
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Michael Bay must have really liked working with his Pain & Gain co-stars. We know he’ll next be teaming up with Mark Wahlberg for Transformers 4, but the Oscar-nominee was not the director’s first choice. That honor goes to Wahlberg’s Pain & Gain co-star, Dwayne Johnson. Johnson revealed in a Twitter interview that Bay offered the lead role to him, but he had to turn it down because he’s starring in Brett Ratner’s Hercules. Read More »
Posted on Monday, April 29th, 2013 by Angie Han
The Fast and the Furious films have always done well, but 2011′s Fast Five really kicked the franchise up to a whole new level in terms of box office, critical praise, and gleefully over-the-top ridiculousness. With some luck, Fast & Furious 6 could raise the bar even higher. That shot of a car shooting out of burning airplane, for example, seemed like a great start.
Helmed by returning director Justin Lin, the latest installment of the car-centric series sees Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) turning to Dom (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker) and the rest of the gang for help in catching a dangerous mastermind (Luke Evans). In exchange, our favorite thieves will get full pardons so they can return home. Complicating matters is the unexpected reappearance of Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) whom they believed to be dead. Watch the last trailer after the jump.
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