BoxOffice101 Movies

Livin's life in the Fast Lane

Movin' at the speed of light and I can't slow down

Only got a gallon in the gas tank

But I'm almost at the finish line, so I can't stop now

The above verses are from Bad Meets Evil's Fast Lane. Many of the readers will know that this was the soundtrack in the Fast Six trailer. Although it was not used in the opening sequence of the flick itself. It is considered an unusual flaw in Fast and Furious Six for me.

  I still can't forget that . That night I watched it I had dreams of engines whirring in my head. Not only was the chemistry between Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) heightened. But also that of Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) and Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster). Also, the interracial couple portrayed by Sung Kang and Gal Gadot respectively.

(KyaZoonga.com)

  As the poster suggests, yes this is the sixth installment in the highest-grossing (and longest-lasting) car-racing movie series. Now I caught this last night at the theatre with my good friend Syed Ali. He won't be reading this post as he's not an avid reader of blogs, but I'd like to mention him anyway.

  Fast Six had a lot to accomplish. Not only commercially but more so critically. Fast Five was a boom for the series. It had lost its steam after the fourth part. The introduction of The Rock as a DSS agent really shook the cinema hall. 

  It was not only his greatest role to date but the movie's highest grossing point. Below are the worldwide commercial and critical statistics, plus the BoxOffice101 ratings for all of the Fast films:

  In Fast Five, Agent Hobbs, played by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson was chasing Dom Toretto's (Vin Diesel)'s team. In the sequel, Hobbs enlists the help of Toretto's crew to capture Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) who's a former Special Air Service agent now running his heist gang. The difference between him and Toretto is simply self-righteous: Toretto's team doesn't kill or steal from the military. To further motivate Dom Toretto to pursue this competitor, Hobbs shows him a snapshot of Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) who has been presumed dead since the fourth feature. 

  Well, even though the hero is a millionaire, can afford any woman, and is with a hotter girlfriend than the former, he still decides to take the job. Fast Six had every comeback to what audiences and critics were expecting: action, great dialogues especially by Roman Pearce (played by Tyrese Gibson who has played the same role in two previous flicks), and a great ending. Fast Six cuts to the chase quickly, pun intended. It gives room to drama, but entertaining sentimentality. It showcases awesome cars such as Toretto's favourite Dodge Daytona (a NASCAR version of the Dodge Charger seen in the other films), BMW M5, Nissan Skyline and many other super brands.

  Before F5, street racing was the driving strength of the franchise. Fast Five gave way to the bank heist. Fast Six gives way to a military heist. Fast 7 might go with stealing The Declaration of Independence, haha!

  Assaying the previous ventures, The Fast and the Furious was great but lacked substance. It was also vaguely predictable but had a satisfying ending. 2 Fast 2 Furious had a bad script but the screen space shared by Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibson was hilarious (like the car stunts) so it was good. Tokyo Drift was amazing with being shot at the locations of the real Tokyo, and Los Angeles. The set pieces showcased the beauty of drifting in Tokyo. Again, the movie was dull in the middle, though it was better than 1 and 2. TD had a higher budget than one and two, still grossed quite lower than both of them. Maybe it was the introduction of Tokyo instead of tradition USA muscle racing, also the absence of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. Although, Vin Diesel makes a cameo appearance at the end of the film.

  Fast and Furious was bad. It is the worst racing film I've seen. Even the ill-fated Torque which was Fast and Furious on motorcycle earning a neat 3.7 rating on IMDb. Even though it had the return of the original stars from the 2001 film: Diesel, Walker, Jordana Brewster and Rodriguez. It also introduced Gal Gadot who revisited the series with F5 and F6.

  Fast Five was bad-ass returning with all the above and more: Gibson and Sung Kang from Tokyo Drift (which is set after the events of Fast and Furious Six). Rapper Ludacris and The Rock made their intros in the film while reprising their roles in the sixth installment and debuting MMA star Gina Carano (who presented herself like the female version of The Rock) as Agent Hobbs' partner. Evans is the main antagonist and also the return of John Ortiz as Braga, who was the main villain in Fast Four. Also, Elsa Pataky as Elena Neves, Toretto's latest girlfriend, who was his love interest in the foregoing cinematic.

  Before viewing F6 I had lower expectations for it. I mean the sequel beating Fast Five, impossible. This was in regard to the BoxOffice101 rating not the Rotten Tomatoes consensus, or the universal aggregate. My expectations were risen above sky level. Fast Six is better than Five though not by a margin. Fast Six is fast cars on celluloid. F6 gives you so much adrenaline afterwards you'll wish to have fast sex, with a fast chick, in a fast car. I even prefer it worthier in comparison to last year's The Avengers, which I gave 3 out of 4 points respectively. The only competitor to beat his blockbuster of the year is Man of Steel which has 2 weeks left from its release. Next week's After Earth has only a chance  of surpassing Oblivion as another dystopian depressing venture. Oblivion was intimidating with high-profile star Tom Cruise, so After Earth has Will Smith and it can be worse with M. Night Shyamalan returning to direct during a flop phase.

  Of course A.E. will not flop commercially with Will Smith's prior 10 films have grossed above $100m domestically and A.E. was smart to release one week later to Fast Six. Still F6 has a BO101 prediction of keeping its top spot next week with Smith's sci-fi venture opening at 2. Fast Six opened with $117m whilst box office moguls predicted a $92m debut. 

  Due to Memorial Day it was a 4-day weekend. Fast 5 opened in the US in the mid of April in a 3-day weekend. So in quadruple days the prequel made $92m. Even if there were triple holidays I still claim that F6 would've have opened with at least $100m. 

  Though there are two flaws to be noted in this venture: First is one scene on the highway that is impossible in real life, and the whole crowd shook with laughter other than shock in the seats. Secondly, Luke Evan's character is not exploited wholly. Still, the positive outweighs the negative as this not a Diesel/Walker film as before F5. Steven Soderbergh used every actor in his Oceans trilogy to share the same screen greatness. With no thespian being showcased as of lower talent. F6 is the best in using such an entourage in the same condition as Oceans and The Avengers, even outranking both.

  Fast 7 has already been announced with shooting to start in August. F7 has a stated July 2014 date. Diesel and Walker are confirmed. The Rock is facing scheduling conflicts, and Justin Lin (director of TD, F4, F5 and F6) is not participating as he has just finished F6. James Wan is one of my favourite horror directors who is known for collaborating with Leigh Whannell for the first SAW film, and in Insidious plus Dead Silence. The only action venture he has directed was Death Sentence (without Whannell) which starred Kevin Bacon and was a thriller for me. It was about a mild-mannered white collar worker avenging his son's death against a street gang. Wan is also of Asian origin like Lin but it was his releases of Dead Silence and Death Sentence in one year that Universal decided to involve him in the next project. I still fear the not taking a two or three year gap could affect the final product. Still, I'll check the critical consensus before deciding to watch Fast Seven.

  A fresh face confirmed for Fast Seven is ex-action star Jason Statham. Ex? Well his stand-alone thrillers i.e.  Blitz, Safe and Parker being the worst films I have seen in the entire decade. Statham registers equally in each film with his trimmed beard and hair. He gives new meaning to the term typecasted. So he is set on a new road in the next FF film as a villain. Hopefully it will help him revive his charisma from The Transporter trio.

  In the end, F6 is an awesome film and yes it is fully worth watching in the cinema. And you'll be missing the drive-thru of a lifetime if you don't. Below is the trailer for Hummingbird, Statham's next bad ass movie:

  

    

  

(Chart by Box Office Mojo)

(Iron Man 3 North American poster)

Robert Downey Jr. reprises the titular role for the fifth time (he appeared as Tony Stark in the Incredible Hulk). Don Cheadle and Gwyneth Paltrow are also returning. The villain is played by Academy Award attainer Ben Kingsley. Last time it was the Oscar-designated Mickey Rourke. Now Iron Man 2 in my opinion was super boring. The first part overcoming it easily. Three is directed by Shane Black whose first venture was Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, also starring Downey Jr.

  KKBB was humorously brilliant. But Black has written films as early as the Lethal Weapon franchise. Iron Man 3 already has a 95% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. With negative reviews not being too negative. The earlier films also have had fresh ratings. Iron Man with 95% and the sequel with 73% both movies being directed by Jon Favreau.

  So I'm more interested in watching this one in the theatre. After all, summer has begun. Though it is still spring in Al Ain, UAE. Another point to note is that Iron Man grossed a little above $580m but the sequel only reached $623.9m. I'm not shocked as I hated the latter.

  The three-quel has made $198.4m in its worldwide opening. This is at the same time The Avengers emerged with $185m. This also clears the point that Iron Man is Marvel's most powerful stand-alone Avenger.

  So yes, anything above $800m globally is expected. Though it's not written in stone that the possible last of this trilogy will land at $1b.

  Now for news other than all the above mentioned. Oblivion is at number 2 in its second leg. I also wanted to include a mini-review of Oblivion in this week's article. Starring Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko and Morgan Freeman. The film shines with a star cast (okay discarding Kurylenko). Still, it was a bad flick. 

  Sci-fi today is predictable and demands originality. Oblivion started as any dystopian science-fiction movie would. But Oblivion is not only a post-apocalyptic movie, it's an apocalypse of a movie. Seriously, the  venture became so predictable after one hour that the brilliant director tried to show his finesse afterwards. That ended up being more than audiences bargained for. And I seriously had a headache in the cinema hall. Compared to this, Prometheus looks like a futurism legend.

  With notable action scenes and great acting by Cruise, as usual, Oblivion was fine for the first hour and a half. But the remaining 35 minutes were shear torture. I regretted being born in those final moments. This is the biggest problem with director-writer Joseph Konsinski. He based this film on his unpublished graphic novel to only prove why the art was not published in the first place. He also wrote/directed Tron Legacy that had a stupendous ending yet better than Oblivion's. Well, the whole movie was better than the latter.

  Oblivion has a 56% rotten rating. The consensus: 'Visually striking but thinly scripted', is the best description for that universe. No sequel is in the news and it is possible with the film 1 million dollars away from attaining the $200m mark. Domestically, it has grossed $65m on a budget of $120m. Tom Cruise's face in the trailers were enough to cross the $100m milestone. It won't cover its budget in the States, probably ending up with $100 million. The people's rating on IMDB rating is 7.2. My rating is a razor-edge 1.5/4. 

  The newcomers this week are Pain and Gain at number 1, with The Big Wedding not so big at 4th place. The former stars Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson respectively.

  That's all from me folks, stay tuned next week for further discussion on this weekend's top spot. And I'd like to end this article with a quote by a fellow movie critic:

'Oblivion is one of the best-looking bad films ever made'. - Shaun Munro (WhatCulture).

(Chart by Box Office Mojo)

(Chart by Box Office Mojo)