After successfully reinvigorating the franchise with Fast Five – namely by injecting the action specimen that is Dwayne Johnson into the proceedings – Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and the gang are back for a sixth go at one-upmanship. What results is a predictably OTT affair, one that has the ability to make the last one look almost realistic, with lashings of ridiculous car chases and even a focus on hand-to-hand combat more than hinted at in the last one when Diesel and Johnson went mano-a-mano.

Fast & Furious 6 introduces a new super villain in the form of Owen Shaw, played in slick, grimacing fashion by Brit actor Luke Evans. He is the often fast and sometimes furious baddie to lead all baddies according to Interpol, with Johnson’s Luke Hobbs offering Dom (Diesel) and his team a chance at full pardons if he helps him take down Shaw and his expert team of drivers.

The clincher for Dom is that Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), who was presumed dead by all, is apparently alive and well and working for Shaw. The draw of reuniting the family is then too much for Dom to resist – after all, this is a franchise about family sticking together… or so the ham-handed dialogue found throughout the series (but especially here) would have you believe. The family drama and loyalty thereof is easily one of the franchise’s weaker aspects and it continues not to work here especially with the way it rams it down our throats.

It works best when it sticks to the audience-drawing action and as usual it trots the globe throughout, though a large chunk of it is set in London. It’s one of many films in recent times to glamourise our nation’s capital for action purposes – others include Welcome to the Punch, Trance and G.I. Joe Retaliation to name but a few – and it makes use of those famous streets as it sees fit, crashing and smashing cars into buildings and barriers like there’s no tomorrow, all the while failing to pay much heed to the usual busyness of the place.

A preposterous chase sequence on a busy bridge, containing a moment that is so out there that it will have you chuckling as your jaw hangs agape, is only trounced by a spectacularly excessive finale involving evidently the world’s longest airport runway that throws logic and logistics out the window. It’s fun and funny in equal measure, though how much of it is knowingly funny and how much is funny for all the wrong reasons is unclear. For action junkies it certainly gives you your money’s worth.

Considering the rather sizeable cast at the forefront it doesn’t have the means, despite its unnecessarily lengthy runtime, to give them any proper sort of chance to show off – only Diesel, Walker and Evans get a good shot at it. Even Johnson, who was put to amazing use when he was introduced last time, takes a disappointing back seat. Much of the dialogue and acting is, of course, terrible but by this stage in the game that can not only be expected but sort of forgiven in a way. It’s all about the ridiculous action and in that respect it delivers.

Under the direction of Justin Lin, who has occupied the director’s chair for the last three installments, delivers another slick and robust outing for the franchise before he takes his bow and leaves it in the hands of Saw and Insidious director James Wan (stick around in the credits for a brilliant teaser of what’s to come). Despite that it feels almost like a send-off for the franchise as it brings back and incorporates elements that will be familiar to long-time fans. In the end it’s not reinventing the Nitrous-fueled engine, and isn’t even the best one in the series (Five will be hard to beat), but there’s loads of fun to be had.

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Fast & Furious 6 is released in UK cinemas on 17th May.