Personally, I like the Fast & Furious movies. Are they stupid? Yes. Has the stories run out of control? Yes. Are they entertaining? Yes. I barely remember the first few, but I remember from F5 onwards. F5 had the safe. F6 had the giant plane. F7 had the Paul Walker ending. F8 had the submarine. F9 had cars in space.
Fast X has all the same cast back, apart from Paul Walker, didn’t see him, I hope he’s OK. Joining them were some new faces like Alan Rtichson, Brie Larson and, of course, Jason Momoa.
The Story
Honestly, there’s no point in expanding on the story all that much since it’s not all that important. I feel sorry for the writers as people aren’t watching this for the compelling story about family. People are watching this for fast cars and big explosions, which this movie has by the bucket load.
The main story would be, the guy they stole the safe from in F5, it’s his son out to get revenge. That’s in a nutshell, there are a few sub-stories, but they don’t really matter. All you need to know is, Momoa is Reyes’ son and he’s out to make Dom and his family suffer.
There’s a bit where Momoa tries to blow up the Vatican to frame Dom, there is street racing, planes, big explosions and more family than you could ever imagine. I’d be interested to know which is the higher number: The number of cars that are wrecked or how many times some uses the word family?
What is funny is how they expand on the family theme. Brie Larson is Mr Nobody’s, played by Kurt Russell, daughter. Dom sister-in-law turns up. I’d guess that Ritcher’s character is related to someone, but it’s not referred to in this movie.
The Action
The overall action is good, although, there are times when it’s just stupid, as you would expect. I honestly laughed at some of the moments because it was just so ridiculous. But then, isn’t that the point of a Fast & Furious movie? I think it is, that’s why I was entertained.
Some of the CG is dodgy in places, most of it is fake fire, which you can see is fake. The rest of it is good fun, as long as you are willing to turn your brain off. I love how, at one point, Dom’s car manages to stop a rolling bomb, jump off a bridge, into a crane, smash against a wall and still drive off. If my car hits a 2-inch pothole in the road, I have to call to get it towed home. I guess I’m not the main protagonist in my own life.
You may ask, Hey Boba, is there a scene with street racers lining up and young ladies with oversized bottoms shaking them at the camera? Yes, yes there is. Although none of these ladies has childbearing hips and I can’t imagine would be interested in me if I turned up to a street race in my Ford Fiesta.
Overall
The movie is what you would expect, in two words: bloody stupid. I hated the timing of a lot of scenes. Someone would make a comment and at that exact moment, a plane, car, bumper car, inflatable duck etc would turn up on cue.
There’s the same issue that everyone seems to know exactly what is going to happen at any given moment. Early on in the movie, Theron’s men turn on her, but she has a fail-safe for such a scenario. Dom even seems to know that at some point, two helicopters will probably try and hoist him up and he seems prepared for that.
John Cena was a babysitter for the movie. Charlize Theron can make a knockout gas stream into a control room with her electronic handcuffs. Nathalie Emmanuel’s hair is too short. Dom’s 10-year-old son is a better driver than Dom. The agency has the worst offices in the world. The list goes on.
One thing that was a major issue for me was Momoa. I don’t rate the guy as an actor. I think he gets work when the character needs to be ‘big and have a beard and long hair’. In this, he plays the bad guy as ‘camp and funny’ and neither works. I’m sure at one point he was wearing a dress. In another scene, he is painting the nails of two dead guys. Seriously.
If you have been entertained by the Fast & Furious movies so far, you will like this one. It’s nothing like the first of the movies since they have gone so far off the rails, but it’s fun. If you are not a fan, then I’m going to say, you won’t enjoy this, I’m clever like that.
The movie does end on a bit of a cliffhanger, but then we know these movies will never stop. Like one of Dom’s cars, they will just keep going and going and going.
I do like them and this was entertaining. At no point in time will this movie be studied by film students. If you are having some mates around, a few beers and this is on, you’ll all be laughing at it. You could play a drinking game, one half of the room vs the other. One-half drinks when a car is wrecked, and the other half drink when there’s a reference to family. My liver is telling me to shut up.
I’m giving Fast X an above score because I enjoyed a laugh for a couple of hours. I would watch it again if it was on TV. It is still in the cinema and will be on streaming soon.
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