Friday 27 October 2017

Fast & Furious 8 - quick review...

What's it about?
Dom's gone rogue! Yeah, right - but there's a very good reason for his apparent switching of sides, as the word "family" continues to be flung about with gleeful abandon. A cyber terrorist hatches a plan to take control of the world's nuclear weapons, and only our favourite family of gear heads can stop them - in a series of flashy cars and insane action set pieces!
Who would I recognise in it?
Vin Diesel, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Kurt Russell, Charlize Theron, Scott Eastwood, Nathalie Emmanuel, Helen Mirren, and several more.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
The formula of family and vehicular excess is beginning to show signs of MOT failure, but there's plenty of life in the old girl yet...

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Under the guidance of series regular screenwriter Chris Morgan and new-to-the-franchise director F. Gary Gray, this eighth part continues the franchise's fondness for location love and sizeable spectacle. The Cuban-set opening demonstrates the Fast & Furious approach to globe-trotting: explore the culture through their cars and their drivers. The slick sequences celebrate Cuban car culture and architecture (and rear ends) before we zoom off to the likes of New York (the preposterously fun 'zombie cars' set piece) and the (supposed) wilds of Russia's frozen military installations (the infamous 'cars v submarine' climax). Fans of the series will know exactly what to expect throughout, but even though we're eight films deep, there's still plenty to enjoy. The film does take a couple of mis-steps, though, most significantly in the re-assessment of Deckard Shaw despite the fact that the character killed Han - one of the "family" - at the end of the sixth movie! It's a rare and clumsy move that can't quite be reconciled despite all the other things that series fans have accepted along the way. The shine is beginning to dull, so it's time to draw this franchise to a close soon (two more movies apparently) ... but it's still rather fun, though. Good.

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