Posted by A crew of street racers drive their way from small crime movies through to full worldwide spy superhero sci-fi comedy thrillers.
One of the things with having an unlimited cinema card is I’d watch movies in the cinema that I wouldn’t usually watch. Fast and Furious 9 is one of those movies. Only issue is, I’ve never seen a Fast and Furious movie before. Don’t get me wrong – I had full intention of watching the first movie when it came out, but I blinked and the movie became a franchise. I felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of movies. Until now. Mrs Oddfather told me to go in blind and just watch F9 as a standalone film, but I’m far too OCD for that. So, I’ve spent the last 10 days catching up on 10 movies. Here’s my quick snapshot review of each, complete with gifs expressing my feelings.
The Fast and the Furious
Super cheesy in the driver’s seat. Super cringeworthy outside of it. Felt very, very 2001 but somehow kept my attention till the end. Point break with cars would perhaps have appealed more to my teenage self once upon a time.
2 Fast 2 Furious
Dumb, dull, and the acting is so so so bad. At the halfway point I questioned why I’m doing this to myself. By the end, I still didn’t know ‘bro’. Barely paid any attention to the story.
Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift
Still dull and lacking any sort of charisma. The lead has a face I want to punch. Can’t believe I’ve found myself missing Vin Diesel. Tokyo makes for a nice backdrop though.
Fast and Furious
Good to see original leads back but ultimately wasted on a soap opera with bad dialogue and boring set pieces. Seems to take itself more seriously than it should. Sick of scenes depicting women as playthings to guys with fast cars.
Fast Five
Wow. Now that’s more like it! Thoroughly enjoyable with much better story and action sequences. Suddenly invested in characters I previously despised, and Dwayne Johnson is a superb addition. Sitting through the last three movies was almost worth it, though probably could have done with just skipping them.
Fast and Furious 6
Hints of cheese and clunky dialogue from earlier instalments. Took a while to get going but carried by a likeable cast. Incredibly ridiculous and over the top, but it works providing you switch your brain off! New formula still worked, finishing strong. The set up for the next movie gave me goosebumps.
Fast and Furious 7
Silly. Ridiculous. Even more over the top than what came before, this is Fast and Furious on steroids. Maybe it’s FF fatigue but I found it real hard keeping the brain switched off and therefore keep attention with all the noise of set pieces. That being said, a heart-warming farewell to Paul Walker so an extra half star for that alone. RIP.
Fate of the Furious
Self-aware and rather fun. Having Dom go rogue breaks the formula and keeps things surprisingly fresh after 8 movies. Like previous instalments it’s a little on the long side and predictable at the best of times, but the cast once again carry this movie. The chemistry between Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham particularly a strong point – if only they made a movie focussing on the two of them 😉
Fast and Furious: Hobbs & Shaw
Take the best characters of the last couple of movies and what do you get? An even more over the top action movie that at times makes the main Fast and Furious movies look grounded! Would have liked to see more Deadpool Ryan Reynolds. At times felt more like a Johnny English spin off. A few pacing issues over what seemed like a very long run time.
To summarise, what started as a movie series I found a bit of a snore-fest became a rather enjoyable action series if not rather dumb. Leave your brains at the door and you may just have a good time! It’s also worth noting that watching these movies back-to-back over the course of 10 days probably didn’t do some of the movies as much justice as if I had a longer break in between movies. I’m thinking F7 which some consider to be the best of the series. Sometimes I just found it hard to keep the brain switched off. Most of my laugh-out-loud moments came from how ridiculous the set pieces were – not sure if they were done for laughs though!