The Fate of The Furious (M)
Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez
Fast and the Furious has finally jumped the shark.
And the submarine. And the skyscraper. And the highway overpass. And just about everything else.
There’s a reason you trudge off to this one feeling like you’ve seen it all before. It’s because you’ve seen it all before.
Is this really outing number eight? Can Vin Diesel even remember anymore?
Charlize Theron steals the show as a global supervillain, bringing her usual mix of sexy crazy beautiful. Mmm, Charlize.
A close second is Jason Statham, royally sending himself up as a tough as nails British hero.
Diesel phones in his performance, and no-one else is of much interest. Michelle Rodriguez scowls occasionally, to no great effect.
That said, a couple of the randomly cobbled together set-piece stunts are worth the price of admission.
In the opening stanza, Diesel wins a street race in a falling apart car that’s on fire, backwards.
And Charlize uses autonomous cars – which are not so autonomous – to take over New York. Welcome to the high-tech Nirvana.
The final sequence, a bizarre sub and torpedo car extravaganza on ice, destroys every law of physics and is probably the most dramatic ho-hum sequence you’ll ever see.
You can’t help but think back to the original film, when the unknown and doe-eyed Vin Diesel had some heart, and something at stake. Simpler times, but better – much like life, really.
– Jason Beck
