a cartoonist in Kekionga

There’s really no need for an elaborate review for Fast & Furious 6.  It’s the sixth movie in the Fast & Furious series.  Vin Diesel is Dom,  Paul Walker is Brian, and Michelle Rodriguez is Letty.  (Yes, I know that we were left earlier thinking that Letty was dead, but do not let that worry you.)  There are lots of cool cars and car races and car chases.  There are also lots of guns and gun fights and car fights and martial arts fights  and plain old regular beating people up fights.  There are explosions and special effects, spectacular stunts, characters cheating death big time, and at least one bunch of dancing girls in skimpy costumes.  There is banter, sarcasm and what is intended to be snappy dialog.  There is a surprising amount of heart.  A Fast & Furious movie is supposed to have these things, and this one does.

Unfortunately, this entry has much less plot than the best examples of the series, and what is there is notably ludicrous.  (Not to be confused with Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, who plays crew member Tej and is very good.)   Equally unfortunately, it has a major character played by Dwayne Johnson, whose performance as Hobbs was the worst thing about the otherwise very entertaining Fast 5.  I don’t know if it is possible to have negative acting talent, but if it is then Johnson is a potential Bizarro Oscar winner.  Any momentum that there is in a scene screeches to a stop the minute he opens his mouth, and every single line he utters plummets swiftly to the floor.  Not that these are brilliant lines, but they are at least as good as the lines in most action movies, and a competent action actor, like Bruce Willis or Vin Diesel himself, could make them work.  At least we would be able to tell the “smartass” remarks from the “inspirational” ones.

If you go to see Fast & Furious 6, do so because you like cars, especially custom shop classics and imports and Not Sold Here rarities, and because you like Vin Diesel.  He is really wonderful in this role, and Dominic Toretto in middle age is a million times more interesting than the same character as a young man.  Go for the wrinkles around Diesel’s eyes and that sweet deep voice, and for the love Dom has for his family and the girl he fell in love with when he was 15.

Because I can’t resist, a few spoilers can be found behind the click: Continue reading →

Technical difficulties at the Cinemark delayed last Friday’s showing for ten or fifteen minutes. Modern audiences seem to be ill-equipped to deal with this kind of problem, sitting dumbly staring at their cellphones until someone of mature years, remembering the film breaks, focus failures and sound drop-outs of the past, goes and finds somebody to fix it. (It wasn’t me, but I was about 30 seconds away from going myself.)

Luckily, the new Star Trek movie (subtitled “Into  Darkness” for the purists; for the rest of us it’s just more Star Trek) was worth the effort, and the wait. It is significantly better than the last entry, not that that’s saying much. I really hated a lot of things about the first one; it took the combined attractions of Zachary Quinto and Simon Pegg to get me into my seat, and even then I almost walked out when the Federation somehow forgot to defend its homeworlds. (I have two words for the Federation: “planetary defense”. Try it.) I am glad to report that while the Star Fleet Admiralty hasn’t gotten a whole lot smarter in this one, the populations of several important planets aren’t sacrificed to its stupidity. Plus Quinto and Pegg, along with Zoe Saldana, put in entertaining performances, there is a lot of zesty space opera action, and even some kind of a plot. It is not bad at all. Read more under the cut, where spoilers abound. Continue reading →