Fast & the Furious 6 - "Furious 6"

     Another Fast and Furious movie you say?!? Having seen the previous films, I knew what to expect. But in fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the film.

     Set straight after the last film, we see all the characters enjoying themselves after stealing a lot of cash from a vault. Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) is living a quiet life, and Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) has just had a baby with Mia (Jordana Brewster). The rest of the crew are off spending their money in casinos or flying around the world. All seems to be going well for Toretto, until Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), head of an elite crime unit, arrives with a brown envelope. It contains photos of Letty (Michelle Rodigruez), who was 'killed' in a previous film. Hobbs informs Toretto that she is part of an expert driving crew who are stealing high-tech weaponry, and that he needs Toretto's team to re-assemble to tackle these expert criminals.

    First thing, you shouldn't go and watch this film expecting to be amazed by a gripping storyline or beautiful cinematic shots. You should expect some cool cars taking part in crazy car chases (I enjoy these) with a storyline just to justify the reasons for the chase. However, I feel with Furious 6 it has more then some of the previous films. Even though there's nothing new and unique about the bad-guy-gone-good-for-pardon storyline, it is still enjoyable, having been helped by the cheesy lines from Toretto and Hobbs which only they could say. The car chases are more exciting in my opinion as now we have two expert teams of drivers taking each other on, providing more of a challenge for them both but also adding to the thrill of the chase. There's now beautiful cinematic shots, no ideas not seen before, but this is part of the Fast and Furious series. Furious 6 is a great film to watch and be entertained, as long as you don't start picking the film apart (the 27 mile runway is an exception) and expect new ideas from it either!

Elysium

The latest from director Neill Blomkamp, Elysium is a sci-fi thriller set in 2154. Bringing in present day social problems such as overcrowding and class division, Elysium starts of by following ex-convict Max (Matt Damon) working at a factory that produces robots. These human-like machines act as policemen but are as well as brutal. Max is lucky however, as he has a job. Many people in Mexico City live in slums and don't have any money and revert to crime to pay bills. Things start to look better for Max as he also meets his childhood crush Frey (Alice Braga). She has returned after becoming a doctor and is working in a hospital nearby. She also has a child, who has a fatal illness.

The rich no longer live on earth anymore. They live on an orbiting satellite called Elysium, protected by the head of security Delacourt (Jodie Foster).They have all the food and space they need, and will not die as machines can cure any sickness, even cancer. People on earth don't have access to any of these machines, so people pay lots of money in smuggling operations that take them to Elysium, which more often or not fail due to Delacourt's ruthlessness. Max joins this group of people after an accident at work leaves him with only a few days left to live. One thing leads to another and Max finds himself in trouble.

I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who's squeamish or doesn't like a lot of swearing. You see people blown up right before your eyes and parts of bodies flying in the air (I personally don't mind the realism). In pretty much every scene there is some swearing. My Gran doesn't approve of all the violence and swearing.

The film highlights modern social problems brighter then day, but still doesn't try anything too brave or original.

The film does keep you entertained for 109 minutes, but won't go down as a classic sci-fi movie. This isn't the first film which has come out recently which is too afraid to be original, mainly due to the amount these films take to make ($115 million for Elysium). But still a fun film to watch, so here's the trailer: