The Fate of the Furious

The quality of the Fast and Furious movies can be assessed, for example, according to which you remember. The first one is memorable because it was relatively cheap, down-to-earth and original. Everyone remembers the fifth one because it brought a proper boost and a leap up in quality, plus a lot of great directorial ideas and audience draws (The Rock, etc.). The rest blends together with only the really great highlights being memorable, whether good or not. The eighth episode is no different and thus falls into the category of nothing exceptional. None of the action scenes are really climactic (CGI mess doesn't automatically mean awesome), Charlize Theron, Jason Statham and co. are fine, but with that kind of acting potential to piss on cars in two or three scenes, get run over by a submarine and that’s it? Where are the full contact fights like The Rock vs Diesel, or Rodriguez vs Carano? Those were the highlights in the action, this one has nothing of the sort. All the flashy gimmicks don't cover up the lack of creative ideas, and the 250 million dollar visuals aren't going to make this a macho action ride. The family feeling continues, okay, the main characters are old enough for that, but the best scenes are not the action ones, and that’s not quite okey. (13/04/2017)

Good for me. Surprisingly good, because they probably realized that what they are about to serve to the viewers cannot be sold with a serious face. So they focused more on humor, wisecracks, and irony. And it works. The over-the-top action is interspersed with moments where it is evident that everyone on set is actually having quite a bit of fun. In this eighth installment, they can do whatever they want, so they openly disregard rules, laws of physics, or logic. Vin Diesel, F. Gary Gray, and the whole gang simply received a bunch of money and had a blast like five-year-old boys whose parents built them a race track for the first time and now they can play... maybe Fast and Furious. Yeah, it's nonsense, but this time so sincerely exaggerated that it's impossible not to enjoy. And Jason Statham confirms here that it's a pity Hollywood discovered his comedic talent too late. I had a good time. (15/05/2017)

Fantastically filmed hogwash which I find incredibly entertaining. Great effects give even the most bizarre scenes a feeling of reality. Despite all of the crazy shit going down, the screenwriter manages to keep the story within firmly set bounds, and his imagination is admirable. Rock and Statham are delightful both with their cool lines and their friendly mockery of each other. Diesel is just classic. He made this movie for fun, earning some money at the same time. (21/04/2017)

But... ummm... Why not. It's soulless, but it's fun, although more than Vin Diesel and his family (put aside five crowns every time that word comes up and you have enough for a movie ticket) benefits from Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham (I understand why they earned their own film), from Charlize Theron, and especially from the sympathetically excessive action, in which cars behave like wild animals and you wait for them to turn into Transformers, and when a submarine joins the final chase, it's actually not inappropriate at all. (30/06/2021)

The Fast and Furious brand isn’t about cars like it used to. It’s not about the races or the smell of burnt tires anymore. Now it’s a brand ensuring high-quality action orgies that may be as dumb as a doorknob, but they have bigger balls than an elephant does. Moreover, they have such a solid casting of action movie actors that I feel like they’ve created a sequel to The Expendables. Personally, I liked Jason Statham the most. He has found himself in his recent roles and he had some amazing lines here. The monstrous actor The Rock comes close second and the entire rest of them follows, including Charlize Theron who was pretty sickening as a villain. (01/10/2017)