Give the desk lady at the Ultra Star Cinema in Maricopa sixteen bucks and she’ll lead you back to theater #2 where there are several rows of special ‘D’ class seats. The seats are part of the D-box experience, a rumbling, shifting, shaking add-on that syncs to the action of the film. For my first D-box experience there was only one choice: Fast 6. By the time the film was over my mind was heavy with the films recurring message and my lips were curled with anticipation of the next chapter.
Fast 6 revisits the beginning of the Fast and Furious saga, reviving star Dominic Toretto’s (Vin Diesel) girlfriend, Leddy (Michelle Rodriguez) as a villain and part of an all-world mobile theft team. In order to get her back Toretto’s own crew teams up with the international cop (Duane ‘The Rock’ Johnson) who hunted them down last film.
Believe it or not, Fast 6 is a moral tale. The series is all about family and honor and code, much in the vein of Samurai movies. These Bushido operate to keep each other alive and to maintain that sense of strength and honor. They also work to make up for their mistakes. In that sense, Toretto and crew are classic heroes on Campbell’s eponymous journey. I wouldn’t mistake this tale for high art, but the main themes ring loud and true. Who goes to these movies for themes anyway? Fast is about cars, girls, and crashes and it delivers that at a pace unmatched by any of the previous films.
Fast 6 is pure action. It starts and ends with car chase scenes and throws in several hero vs. villain fights along the way. What worked best was the chemistry between Johnson (referred to as Samoan Thor) and Diesel. Both of these superstars can carry a film and watching them play off each other as equals and even reluctant friends felt entirely genuine.
I like films that build a world that makes sense. I don’t expect that world to be my world, and Fast 6 isn’t any realistic world whatsoever. It doesn’t matter to me as a viewer. So long as the world stays within the rules of the world, I’ll play along. I played along for 6 and was rewarded with an incredible post credits ending I never saw coming. That ending tells me I”ll play along for 7.
Some Thoughts:
- I’m thinking about framing in a bookshelf to the makeshift ‘tree house’ I built for the kids last year. I want it to be a team project where the kids take a major role in the design. The goal is to see that space completed in a way that is cool and the kids can get behind. Now the ‘do it now’ guy in me wants to knock this out tomorrow, but I think significant planning from the beginning of this thing–blueprinting–all the way to completed construction will be more beneficial to the boys.