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Fast & Furious 8

  • Film
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Velocidade Furiosa 8
©DR
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Time Out says

3 out of 5 stars

The whole gang are back in this enjoyable if unsurprising episode in the long-running cars 'n' guns franchise

Haters love to complain that this increasingly barmy petrolhead action series has reached its eight episode with no sign of stopping. But would the same argument apply to, say, a decades-long TV soap opera? Deep down, that's all the Fast & Furious franchise is – it just happens to be on the big screen, cost millions of dollars and feature souped-up sports cars jumping over submarines.

The villain this time is Cipher (Charlize Theron), a platinum blonde criminal mastermind (aren’t they all?) with a cunning plan to bring Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) back to the dark side. But Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and the rest of their ever-expanding crew of wiseass jalopy jockeys have no intention of letting Dom go. He’s family, goddammit!

So begins the obligatory globe-trotting free-for-all, as our heroes abandon their bolthole in Havana and head briefly to Berlin, followed by a wild time on the streets of New York and a sub-smashing showdown in an Arctic shipyard. Of course, there are strays to pick up along the way: Scott Eastwood’s buttoned-up military man, Kurt Russell’s shady government fixer and – gloriously, hilariously – Helen Mirren as Jason Statham’s drawling, nicotine-stained Cockney mum.

The action scenes are competently handled by ‘Straight Outta Compton’ director F Gary Gray: there’s nothing here to rival the tactile intensity of series peak ‘Fast Five’, though the New York sequence has its share of OTT grip-the-handrest moments. Overall, there’s a sense that ‘Fast and Furious 8’ knows exactly where it wants to go and won’t bust a gasket getting there: you might ask for a little more character work here, a few more plot surprises there, but on the whole this rattles along just fine.

Written by
Tom Huddleston

Release Details

  • Rated:12A
  • Release date:Friday 14 April 2017
  • Duration:136 mins

Cast and crew

  • Director:F. Gary Gray
  • Screenwriter:Chris Morgan
  • Cast:
    • Dwayne Johnson
    • Jason Statham
    • Vin Diesel
    • Charlize Theron
    • Helen Mirren
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