In the sixth film in this profitable sex, speed and demolition franchise, Dwayne Johnson (formerly known as “the Rock”) as an Interpol officer uses moral blackmail and promises of amnesties to lure a crowd of freewheeling, fast-driving international criminals from their romantic lairs in sunny climes to defeat a renegade SAS man who has accumulated top-secret military equipment to hold the world to ransom.
This is an excuse for mayhem on a spectacular scale mostly in Britain and Spain as a band of petrolheads led by the appropriately named Vin Diesel use mechanical torsion to defeat malevolent extortion.
The endless chases, stunts and fights are as spectacular and preposterous as the occasional verbal exchanges are sentimental and childish.
An illegal road race through the night streets of London’s West End is particularly brilliantly staged.
“The Rock” forces the Metropolitan Police’s security to release restricted documents merely by squeezing a top cop’s hand to pulp, thus applying enhanced interrogation to the special relationship.
The end credits promise that Jason Statham will be joining the team in the next episode.
