Fate of the Furious Review
PG13: Prolonged Sequences of Violence and Destruction, Suggestive Content, and Language
Universal Pictures, Original Film, One Race Films
2 Hrs and 16 Minutes
Cast: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Kurt Russell, Scott Eastwood, Charlize Theron, Helen Mirren
REVIEW: Faster & faster these movies go when will they stop? NOBODY KNOWS! One of the weirdest franchises that always never cease to amaze me are the Fast & Furious movies. Just the expansion of the cast each film brings along from The Rock to Kurt Russell and the insane action sequences just astound the crap outta me. With this being the first (well technically second) Fast & Furious film without the late Paul Walker, and the beginning of a trilogy to close the franchise altogether (like there was a complicated story, to begin with) with Fate of the Furious continue this franchise's winning streak that honestly started with Fast Five?
Now that Dom and Letty are on their honeymoon and Brian and Mia have retired from the game and the rest of the crew has been exonerated-the globetrotting team has found a semblance of a normal life. But when a mysterious woman seduces Dom into the world of crime he can't seem to escape and a betrayal of those closest to him, they will face trials that will test them as never before. From the shores of Cuba and the streets of New York City to the icy plains off the arctic Barents Sea, the elite force will crisscross the globe to stop an anarchist from unleashing chaos on the world's stage... and to bring home the man who made them a family.
THE GOOD: For a franchise that went on long enough to release an eighth entry, Fate of the Furious is an action sequel that never seems to run out of steam. By now, you shouldn’t enter these movies expecting an Oscar award-winning story or performance because these movies are still dumb as shit. It's extremely crazy to think that this franchise began with guys stealing Panasonic VHS players to working for CIA groups and fighting against international terrorists.
With Fate, the film begins up like every Furious movie should open up: with a race in an exotic location in which this being Cuba. It whole heartedly goes back to its roots by beginning with a fun and nicely edited car race. But then it reminds you that it is a Furious movie by having the broken down car Vin Diesel drives catching on fire, then pulling a Mater (yes I mean Tow Mater from Cars) by driving backwards in order to win, before jumping out of it, and letting it explode in the ocean. I just love that right after Castro died, the first thing us Americans do is film a Fast & Furious action sequence that involves racing and explosions. Seriously, that opening sequence is an establishing reminder that you are watching a Fast & Furious film and if you don’t like it, you know where the exit door is. From there, you get two hours of non-stop high octane fun. These movies know what they are and who they are intended for and what I love about this is that it never loses sight on its audience.
The best thing about this film is its heart. We know about Dom’s code of family and respect for others. I just believe that when this franchise is all said and done, Dom will grow into a Mr. Miyagi of driving because he’s always touching a young kid a lesson with wisdom and metaphors. You see all of the franchise’s previous foes all turning into allies as they do return to help the crew out catch Dom.
Instead of the film being directed by horror director James Wan or series director Justin Lin, we now have F. Gary Gray who brings the hood to this franchise. This is from the director from Friday and Straight Outta Compton and you feel his other films’ influence in this. This has the insulting dialogue delivery that is very reminiscent of Friday (especially between Johnson and Statham), and the insane sequences reminiscent of Straight Outta Compton. One of the best action sequences out of the entire film is the Hobbs & Shaw jailbreak scene because once the action kicks in, music blares and shit gets chaotic in the most brilliantly choreographed way imaginable. It's honestly the best prison fight scene I’ve ever seen even more so than The Raid 2.
The two dudes that really made the humor of this film work are Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. Besides Spy, this is the most alive I’ve ever seen Jason Statham in a movie. The film pins Hobbs and Shaw against each other and it leads to the best comedy the film has to offer. They’re at each other’s throat throughout the entire film like Tom and & Jerry. I kind of want a spinoff film between Hobbs and Deckard Shaw. While everyone in this film infuses life where their own unique sense of humor, it's these two that gets the most laughs out of the entire movie. Sorry Tyrese, one day you’ll be funny.
Eight movies in and this franchise still amazingly pull off car sequences I’ve never seen before. As I said, you have Dom driving car on flames. But when they take the franchise to New York, the film briefly goes from a Fast & Furious movie to a Final Destination movie. At first, the movie wrongfully displays New York by having the traffic in Manhattan being vacant as hell. Three is no way on any day of the week, that the streets of Manhattan would be empty. But what they do here immediately after is honestly every New Yorker’s worst nightmare as it takes on a prolonged sequence of cars falling and crashing from every window imaginable and onto the streets of Manhattan. The action they pull off throughout this film is as absurd as a Segata Sanshiro commercial.
(If you don’t get that reference, search up those commercials and tell me the action in these movies don’t differ from the action in those commercials).
THE BAD: The film is consistent with its stupidity, but at times the humor ranges from genuinely funny to awkwardly stupid and IT IS NOT EVEN FROM RONAN THIS TIME! When Hobbs is introduced into the film, the and a soccer team of girls do this:
I know you’re Hawaiian and you’re Maui, but that doesn’t mean you have to be Maui. It is a good minute and a half of Hobbs doing this Hawaiian or Polynesian chant and dance, but it just feels like something cut off a different movie. You get Vietnam flashbacks of Johnson’s earlier family film career from both The Game Plan and The Tooth Fairy. There’s even an insult where Statham calls Johnson "Hercules," where you laugh at the realization that Johnson did play Hercules in 2014. That’s not an insult, that is a fact.
The film establishes Scott Eastwood as the new cast member that joins in on the crews’ shenanigans as he is introduced as the straight man who is Kurt Russell’s character understudy who follows nothing but the rules. This does lead to a lot of funny lines of dialogue where he is the butt of all the jokes, but as a character, he’s really predictable. I guess he’s supposed to be the Paul Walker replacement in a way, but honestly, I don’t buy his inclusion to the franchise. This movie has a large cast of characters already, I’m starting to fear if it just turns into an Expendables movie if they cast one more person.
The film has the basic action movie tropes from the generic foreshadowing of the big muscle head you know Dom will fight eventually to the Zack Snyder type slow-mo with every cool shot. For an over two-hour film, the movie wraps itself up pretty fast and cheesy. It just says, “All's well that ends well,” and you’re there thinking, “Really? No consequences? Okay, on to the next one.”
Though the majority of her role is Dom’s puppeteer but the dirt she has against him to make do these dastardly deeds is honestly f’ed up. It's something you honestly don’t think up. It's like the movie goes, “fuck your theory, we got something crazy for your ass.” I love how every action film Charlize Theron stars in, a new hairstyle she downs on. From being bald in Mad Max to now having Jamaican style dreads. Though she gives a good performance like she normally does, she’s really underplayed. For the majority of the film, she’s watching footage in an airbase and giving orders. She’s like Dr. Blofeld without the cat. She is an angry mob boss but doesn’t really do much.
Last Statement: With F. Gary Gray at the helm this time around, Fate of the Furious still proves that this octane action franchise has not run out of steam just yet.
Rating: 3.5/5 | 78%
Super Scene: JAILBREAK!
