The Fast and the Furious 6 (should be entitled, "The Absurd and the Ridiculous")

[WhenItWasAHobby]

Yesterday my family and I went to see The Fast and the Furious 6. I never saw the prior five movies and I wondered if I would be at a disadvantage of following the plot of the sixth movie. Some of my family members assured me I should have no problem catching up on what this movie would be about.

The movie is filled with action scenes, including fights, car chases and explosions. As these scenes progressed, the utter absurdity of so many nearly physically impossible stunts quickly turned the movie into a side-splitting campy comedy for me such as Vin Diesel getting shot in the shoulder and casually pulling out a pristine bullet with a pair tweezers in the following scene and physically carrying on as if nothing happened. But it even gets funnier, with stunts such as jumping out high speed cars and airplanes. Perhaps the most ridiculous scene had to be where the stars were chasing the bad guys in a military transport airplane on a airport runway. The scene lasted at least 15 minutes. If the plane was going 100 mph on the runway, that means the runaway was at least 25 miles long.

When our family had dinner after the movie, we talked about all of this, and basically came to the conclusion that Hollywood studios really have no choice to do this - especially with so many Super Heroe movies. Sadly, we concluded, the action movie genre has become of a victim of its own success.

[novakjr]

I agree, action movies nowadays seem to thrive on absurdity. Especially the sequels. The campy nature of them is part of the appeal. I think the key is understanding that they are actually poking fun at themselves. The last few Die Hards and the 2 Expendables movies are probably the best examples. Completely ridiculous, yet still great..

As far as the fast/furious series. Was there really a need for more than 1 of these? Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the first one, but can't stand the wave of souped up Honda Civic idiots that resulted from it.

[WhenItWasAHobby]

Originally Posted by novakjr

I agree, action movies nowadays seem to thrive on absurdity. Especially the sequels. The campy nature of them is part of the appeal. I think the key is understanding that they are actually poking fun at themselves. The last few Die Hards and the 2 Expendables movies are probably the best examples. Completely ridiculous, yet still great..

As far as the fast/furious series. Was there really a need for more than 1 of these? Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the first one, but can't stand the wave of souped up Honda Civic idiots that resulted from it.

Well said. The way the Fast and the Furious 6 ended made it tacitly clear that there would be a #7.

[steve B]

They'll keep making them as long as people keep going. Sadly Hollywood has no new ideas and can only remake the same stuff only worse.

I haven't seen a movie in a theatre for a few years now.
But I have a friend who collects films, and projects on a wall nearly as big as the screen at the cinema 70 down the street.
No need to spend what? 20+ to see something that will probably be on tv the week after I see it.

But I am looking forward to 2043 to watch fast and the furious 50 "revenge of the rascal"

[Pinstriper780]

Originally Posted by steve B

They'll keep making them as long as people keep going.

That's the truth, as long as studio execs and producers are still seeing the profits flying in from the 18-35 demo (whom have more and more discretionary income to burn) they'll keep churning them out.

They know exactly who their target audience is and they're stil showing up in droves.