The Fate of The Furious
Watching The Fate of the Furious was kind of like having a 5 Star Chef prepare and serve you a dish of Cheese Whiz. Sure, it's probably the best Cheese Whiz you've every had, but at its core, it's still shitty, fake cheese. But, that doesn’t mean you still can’t really enjoy it despite yourself and come back for eight helpings. This is how I feel about the eighth installment in the Fast and Furious franchise. Putting awesome car chases, great fight scenes, and the Rock together in one movie goes along way, but there is only so much that can be done to mask the over-the-top cheesiness of this movie.
F8 states off with a very James Bond opening esq., over the top, action sequences. As the movie progresses, the action gets wilder and more over the top. At one point, I found myself starting to laugh at the obscurity of what I was watching on the screen. In-between the fights and chases, there is some type of plot going on… I think. I’m not really sure what the villain’s main objective was, although Charlize Theron is a pretty badass villain, and it gets hard to keep track of the logic and reasoning driving all the characters.
But despite my eyes being soar from all the rolling, this movie is still pretty entertaining and surprisingly funny. The stunts and hand-to-hand combat fights were very impressive, especially those including Jason Statham. And you have to give the director, F. Gary Gray, and his team some serious creativity points when it comes to the car chases; Incorporating a submarine, a wrecking ball, and hundreds of self-driving cars. It kind of feels like they are just picking random objects out of a hat and finding a way to use them in the film.
And let’s not forget about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, the human personification of whey protein and charisma. This role highlights the Rock in his best, purest form. Getting to watch his Royal Rumble scene in the prison was incredible. It felt like he was back in the ring at Wrestlemania 15. He also had a great rapport/bromance with Statham. Those two stole the show and I found myself impressed by both of their performances.
The same cannot be said about the walking one-liner, Vin Diesel. Man, Vin. You were just hard to watch in this movie. The corny lines the writer had everyone saying didn’t help. But without the natural charisma of his co-star to help over compensate, Vinny D was by far the low point of the film.
I must confess, I skipped out on Fast 3-7. I lost interest and never was intrigued to pick the franchise back up. I don’t think that hurt the overall viewing experience but I definitely missed out of some cameo and inside jokes. And surprisingly, after the movie was over, I found myself wanting to go back and catch up on what I had missed.
So, you should see this movie if…
- You miss the glory days when The Rock did his acting in the ring
- You know who sings ""How You Gonna Act Like That" & "Rollout"
OR
- Plot and dialog don't matter and you're just looking to unplug, shove popcorn in your face, and watch some awesome, crazy action
Rating: 2.5/5
