The Fate of the Furious

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The Fate of the Furious is the 8^th film in the Fast and the Furious franchise. Much like the rest of the movies, I love the insane, ridiculous stupidity. This time around Dom Torretto (played by Vin Diesel) is blackmailed by a hacker named Cipher (played by Charlize Theron) to help her obtain some things that will help her in her extremely convoluted plan.  Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell with his typical cool factor) has Dom’s family work with Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) to bring Dom in and take Cipher down. The first question is: Do I like this movie? Yes. I do. The second question is: Where do I rank this movie? It earns solid fourth place for me. I personally like 5, 6, and 7 more than this one. But, I do still think it’s stronger than the first four movies in the series. Let’s start with the negatives, because I do have some problems. First, Cipher’s plan isn’t very memorable. If you were to ask me what her plan was I would say this: “She wants to steal something because reasons.” The tonal shifts are a bit jarring too. It’ll go from this heavy dramatic moment to a comic relief scene where Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson argue and joke. I’m not saying that both of these shouldn’t be in the same movie. I just think it could’ve been handled better. Now, let’s move on to the stuff I liked. The “family” has really solid chemistry that you can only get from the amount of movies that these guys have done together. One of my bigger issues with Furious 7 was the underuse of Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. Here, the two each get their moments to shine (and feel more strongly utilized). Statham and Johnson are easily the most enjoyable performers in the movie. Not only do they build a hilarious bromance, it’s also clear they are having the most fun in their roles. The action scenes are unbelievably cool. Overall, this is a fun addition to the Fast and the Furious franchise, even if it does struggle to stack up against the previous three movies in the series.

7 / 10