Movie Reviews

NEW YORK — The title-shifting franchise that now gives us "Fast & Furious 6" (Universal) may be unreliable where the use of definite articles and the representation of conjunctions are concerned. Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel star in a scene from the movie "Fast & Furious 6." The Catholic News Service classification is L - limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 - parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.(CNS photo/Universal)But its underlying recipe is far more predictable.
    
So it's unlikely that potential audience members really need a review to tell them that director Justin Lin has turned out yet another barroom brawl of a movie. Or that screenwriter Chris Morgan's script conjures up a teenage boy's vision of the good life, an adolescent "la dolce vita" unencumbered by such killjoy detritus as stop signs and speed limits.
    
Those tiresome markers of conventionality have never bothered the crew of law-flouting underground car racers who make up the recurring characters of this series. And yes, their endless run-ins with the authorities may have left them on the lam from justice. But at least, as our current adventure begins, they're living out their respective exiles in glamorous places (whence the heavy-duty product placement, in early scenes, for the tourism board of the Canary Islands).
    
The funds keeping them high on the hog, devotees will remember, were liberated from the coffers of bad guys during their last collective caper, staged down in colorful but corrupt Rio de Janeiro. Rio, Gran Canaria. ... Oh, it's a giddy whirl!
    
Still, America being home and all, it would be nice to be rehabilitated.