So I recently had the misfortune of being dragged to see the brand new Fast and Furious film. And I mean misfortune. Fast 6 is truly dreadful and it’s making me ask, how has this series fallen so far?

I mean the first film in this series, The Fast and the Furious, was a gritty crime film that was really all about fast cars and street racing. And that was what made the series, not massive set pieces involving tanks or planes. And thats my problem it’s just not Fast and Furious. What really exemplified the series for me was the third film, Tokyo Drift, where the big climax isn’t several fights around a plane thats trying to take off, but instead is a race down a twisting mountain path. Thats what I watched Fast and Furious for, not for another mindless mildly enjoyable popcorn flick, where the only new spin is that the characters pull of crimes in tuned up American muscle cars.

But what really annoyed me about Fast and Furious 6 was that it couldn’t even manage that. That is the one thing I can say for it’s predecessor, Fast 5, at least the action sequence were on the right side of ‘so idiotically stupid that I wanted to find whoever thought them up and give him a proper slap’. But in F&F6 they are just beyond logic, as I’ve already alluded to with the tank and the plane. And don’t even get me started on the supposed plot twist. As well as being easily spottable from about 30 minutes beforehand (or one stupid set piece) I also found that I just didn’t care, I gave up on any hope of a plot after the fourth film and I just wish that it would go back to it’s basics. They did try and make a lot of references to the previous films, another aspect of F&F6 which failed for me, but rather than making these nods to the previous films they are rammed down our throats, probably the biggest example of this is the return of the character Letty.

The worst thing however was the attempt to change what happened in Tokyo Drift. I don’t want to give away exactly how they’ve changed it, so all I say is NO! YOU DO NOT BRING STATHAM INTO THE CANON OF TOKYO DRIFT! I mean, common guys it’s really the only one for me that I truly liked as a film, couldn’t you just leave it without changing a basic plot point.

Oh well, another poor F&F film, sadly I’ll probably get dragged to see the seventh as well. Lucky me. But at least Vin Diesel is still awesome in them.