Fast and Furious 8

Okay Fast and Furious 8 did in fact answer some questions, and we are starting to see the overall quality increase. However there were still some glaringly obvious horrible choices in this one as well. That said it was the least offensive Fast and Furious movie thus far.

Let’s start with the good. This movie was entirely carried by Jason Statham and the Rock. Now the Rock is not a good actor in the sense of having range or skill but he plays himself in different settings very well. Their interactions were the most entertaining part of the movie and it really felt like a Hobbs and Shaw dry run. Like how TV shows center an entire episode around a possible spin off.

The dialogue continues to be absolutely terrible but I have concluded that it's a 50/50 split between how the dialogue is written and how it's delivered. Charleze Theron also had some horrible dialogue but it just wasn’t as cringe as when Vin Diesel says it.

I suppose my biggest problem was with the whole main plot. The part where Dom finally actually talks to Elena, it was clear that he was surprised when Elena said “the three of us” which means that he didn’t know about the kid till that interaction. WHICH MEANS that he turned on his whole team AND Lettie for some cop he fucked once…that is absolutley ridiculous to me. Batshit. Wildly inconsistent with his character and the writer's desperate attempt to make these movies less repetitive simply did not work.

Adding back in the Rock and Statham did make the cast feel a little bloated, I know we seem to always have a big team in these movies but it was just too much. When ensemble casts are too big it just feels unnecessary. There is no longer a role for every person, some people seem to just be there with no purpose.

Now the action scenes were definitely less batshit crazy then the 9th or 10th movies and they were much more grounded in reality. They were however very, very long. Obviously this is an action movie and no one is expecting Shakespeare but I would like there to be a vague plot and amount of character development. I will say besides the dukes of hazzard like jumps that all the cars seemed to do and the driving massive cars on ice that is being set on fire and shot at, the most unrealistic thing that happened was the Rock hanging out of the car and redirecting a torpedo.

Working backwards through these movies is actually great because the 9th and 10th clearly do not stand on their own. The movies are barely coherent as it is but if you haven’t seen some of the other movies they are incomprehensible. The end of this series requires context. The 8th movie however was a little more stand alone, yes I assume it would help to have seen the rest of them but it isn’t as necessary. I came out of this movie with far fewer questions than I did with the 9th film.

We are already seeing the quality increase so I guess I am kind of looking forward to the next 7 movies. But then I remember that there are 7 more movies…and the enthusiasm disappears pretty quickly. The Fate and the Furious is, thus far, the highest rated Fast and Furious movie that we have watched. That list will be published with the end of our rewatch journey.