Don’t worry! Even though they’ve removed “furious” from the title this time around, the Dominic Toretto gang is all back in action in Fast X, and they are just as angry as ever. (Dashing the hopes and dreams of the kinder and gentler car chaos crowd.)
The “Fast and the Furious” film franchise is one that took me several films to fully appreciate, but I eventually came to love being entertained by the mechanized madness and the cheesy machismo that make up these movies. (Maybe “love” is too strong a word.)
My eyes still roll during every cornball la familia speech, but instead of inducing nausea, these days the dead serious family stuff just makes me giggle. I don’t know if it’s meant to be that funny, but, hey, I’m having a good time.
I honestly can’t keep track of all the cast members in these movies. The Toretto family tree would cause 23andMe to crash. There are those returning and those who have been regulars, those who are fighting and those who are friends. What the plot might have been in which numbered film is also way too exhausting to keep track of. I can say there are a lot of familiar faces in this Fast X flick, and many cameos from the previous films too.
The story this time around involves a dastardly new villain, Dante (Jason Momoa), whose father was killed by Toretto (Vin Diesel) back in one of the crew’s earlier heists. He’s back now for revenge and he doesn’t care what innocent bystanders might get caught in the middle.
Momoa is perfectly over the top in this role and seemed to me like the Fast and the Furious version of the old-school Joker, complete with purple suit and maniacal laughter. In fact, when you stop and think about it, this film borrows a lot from the Batman films, from the bad guy to the tricked out cars and miraculous brushes with danger.
Toretto’s young son, Brian (Leo Abelo Perry), plays heavily in this film’s narrative and you can probably predict how he plays into the plot. John Cena also makes a fun appearance as Brian’s Uncle Jakob. (Not telling you anything you haven’t seen in the trailer).
Directed by Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk – 2008), the action sequences here are as awesome and insane as you might imagine, with the climax topping them all as Dom drives a… well, you’ll see.
These films are so easy to dog and they only exist as completely mindless entertainment, but they do it so well that you can’t help but have fun – as long as you get that shift stick out of your butt.
