The Fate of the Furious

The more obvious the complexity of the plot twists in which the gang has been throwing itself five installments in a row, the greater my excitement for the resulting film. Just a while ago, I was worried that there was nowhere to go, nowhere to build expectations, and nowhere for the characters to go. However, for a long time now, I have seen that none of this is necessary. Vin Diesel, from the position of the main face, incorporates all conceivable fan wishes into the scripts, including the dream (and surprisingly perfect) portrayal of the main antagonist. In the slower passages, he murmurs several phrases on the theme of "My Family" with an incomprehensible bass voice, and at the same time, he manages to come up with a surprise that no one expects (this time it is that stealer of scenes, Jason Statham). Various criticisms of physics or logic have never been more pointless. This saga operates in its own universe, and I will be happy if it continues at similar two-year intervals for a long time. (05/18/2017)

This series has become my heart's delight, and it's very likely that I won't rate any future installments differently than 100%. For me, this is just a fantastic group that I'm happy to return to. There are emotions in it, it's entertaining, and damn, it's awesome in terms of special effects. The action ideas are so wonderfully crazy that they make me purr with delight. (04/24/2017)

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. (10/01/2017)

An ultra-brutally overblown action flick (at times to the point where I was expecting the Death Star to be the target of the villains and The Rock to pull a Mustang with a built-in R2-D2 out of the garage), but one that manages the near-impossible feat of finding a workable balance between over-the-top superhero antics, where absolutely anything goes, and a more serious psychological conflict leading to seriously motivated nonsensical antics. And the middle ground is both in the addictive humour and the tremendous insight, thanks to which the film immediately gets the audience exactly where it wants to go, and every sci-fi element is simply funny and somehow natural. But there’s also the very well constructed script, which, for a change, deftly handles the limited communicativeness and resorts much less to visibly improvised and wannabe cool dialogues (and when it does, it's quite good, e.g. the delicate verbal shootouts between Johnson and Statham, which are the steroid of the first half). In addition to being deliberately over-the-top and spectacular, the action is also royally entertaining and intense, culminating in a double finale that is one of the most gripping in history (Statham now aspires to be the nanny of the century, his scene with the baby being the best sequence of the entire series). Charlize is a great villain, Gybson still isn't annoying, I still love Rodriguez, and I sincerely hope Gray stays fast and furious, because after the miserable Seven, my interest in this testosterone-laden franchise shot to considerable heights. 80% (04/17/2017)

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. (04/21/2017)