Fast & Furious 6 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +2 Content: -3

Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster. Action/crime-thriller. Written by Chris Morgan, Gary Scott Thompson. Directed by Justin Lin.

FILM SYNOPSIS: Agent Luke Hobbs enlists Dominic Toretto and his team to bring down former Special Ops soldier Owen Shaw, leader of a unit specializing in vehicular warfare.

PREVIEW REVIEW: We like familiarity in our movies. Think of all the classic movie series that live and won’t die: James Bond, Indiana Jones, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. I guess there’s nothing wrong with that. After all, we generally attend movies to forget our troubles and woes. We want to be entertained, not tested. That said, as a film reviewer, it makes it difficult to say anything of significance about a film that has only three ingredients: muscles, machines and babes. The director of F&F6 can only attempt to amp up these components in order to beat the previous installments.

I gave up going to films that refused to stop at the number 4. But I admit, I was interested in one of the ingredients of this film (hint: it has muscles, but it’s soft). So, I went to the screening, not looking for a storyline or great dialogue. Had I done so, I would have found the plotline befuddled and the dialogue cornball. The entire cast wears the same expression throughout and the messages are as convoluted as the storyline. These guys and gals have been thieves, they break every known law, endangering the lives of civilians every time they start up their motors, and they live by the sword (gun), but at the end of the film they pray over their dinner.

It’s a crowd pleaser if this is your genre (tough cars and even tougher women).

DVD Alternative: Bullitt. Steve McQueen as detective who goes by his own rules. Great action, score and the best car chase ever filmed. (Caution: contains one obscenity, but I caught no misuse of God’s name. Also it has some violence, but nothing like today’s standards, or lack of.) It also has a muddled plotline, but it has Steve McQueen. He doesn’t have much to say in the film, but when he speaks, it’s not cornball. That can’t be said for the star of F&F6. Which star of S&F6? Pick one.

Preview Reviewer: Phil Boatwright
Distributor: Universal