Best Action Sequence: The Runway - Fast and Furious 6
Since the untimely passing of Paul Walker, looking back on the Fast and Furious franchise will always be tinged with sadness for me as I grew up with the series, renting the first movie several times on VHS when I was only about 10. However, the actor has left a sterling legacy as the franchise has become one of the all-time greats of action cinema, with parts 5 and 6 undoubtedly two of the most purely entertaining blockbusters in recent memory. The climactic action scene features everything we've come to know and love about the former street-racing franchise; the rules of logic, gravity and physics are thrown completely out of the window but damn, it's a hell of a lot of fun to watch. Have you ever wanted to see The Rock jump from a moving plane onto a car? Or team up with Vin Diesel for some tag-team brawling reminiscent of his WWE days? Would you like to see Vin deliver a flying headbutt? How about seeing a villain fired out of a plane by what is essentially a harpoon? Or how about a seemingly 50-mile runway that sees a ridiculously large plane brought down from the sky by several cars, before yet another car basically ejaculates from the front of the exploding fuselage? Yes, the tank chase is impressive but the final shot almost saw the series jump the shark for me, before this action extravaganza displayed all the swagger, bravado and ridiculousness the franchise has come to embrace in recent years. Director Justin Lin masterfully handles the madness of basically staging half-a-dozen smaller action sequences on the runway simultaneously, proving himself one of the best set-piece directors in the business, as well as providing the best action scene of 2013. Runner-Up: The Train Sequence - The Lone Ranger Say what you will about the quality of the final product (and I say it's a bloated, tonally uneven, half-hour too long, yet well-shot disappointment) but there's no doubt that the final set-piece is well-served by director Gore Verbinski's over-indulgence. I must confess, I broke into a huge grin when the William Tell Overture began playing and the lengthy, Buster Keaton-esque sequence features two trains, two tracks, two heroes, plenty of henchmen and a horse amongst other things, and is greatly rewarding to those who sat through the previous two hours thanks to this extraordinary finale. If only the rest of the movie had been anywhere near this entertaining.
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