Fast 10 Your Seat Belts

Despite suffering from some well established franchise problems Fast X puts it's pedal to the metal to become one of the saga's best entries. No mean feat for a series 10 films and over 20 years in.

The set pieces are a tiny bit more grounded than F9 but still ridiculous and a lot more fun. Various members of the crew play live action Rocket League in Rome, drop out of a plane in a "canoe" and engage in a final chase that is much more satisfying than the turn magnet on and off showdown of the previous film. The film also benifits from an increase in star power and better use of its characters. John Cena returns but he plays the character of Jacob Toretto completely differently and is great fun as he embarks on a road trip with his nephew. Jason Statham is back as Decard Shaw, albeit only as a cameo with the promise of more to come. The film really belongs to franchise newcomer Jason Mamoa as Dante Reyes, son of Fast 5 villain Hernan. Leaving his imposing frame to portray the menace, Momoa camps it up like a 60's Batman villain and every time he is on screen the film is at its best.

Unfortunately his screen time is too limited. Partly down to the massive cast, partly down to Vin Diesel's insistence that everyone remember the Fast franchise is his toy. His desire for Dominic to remain front and centre is particularly jarring when he is a charisma vacuum compared to many of the characters on display. The completely straight way he play Daddy Dom has gone beyond any possible parody and creates a real disconnect with the rest of proceedings.

The movie also has an issue with the amount of plot to runtime. Some films try to cram too much plot into too short a time but here it's the opposite, a bloated runtime with very few of the on screen events moving the story forward in any meaningful way. There's an entire sub plot involving part of the crew trying to make it home that serves no purpose other than giving the cast something to do. In fairness this strand does tease out a couple of funny moments, provided you haven't grown too tired of the Tyrese Gibson/ Ludacris bickering banter.

Despite these reacuring issues Fast X is great, dumb fun and on this form it will be a sad day when this most unique of blockbuster franchises finally does run out of gas.

7 nails painted purple on 10 dead man's fingers.

Comments

2024 at the Cinema

Bye bye 2024, time to put your ducks in a row. If ducks are films I saw in the cinema. As ever, ranking is purely my opinion (although my opinion is obviously correct), a movie needs to have been released in the UK during calendar year 2024 and I have to have seen it on the big screen for it to be eligible. 60. The Strangers: Chapter 1 Unrelentingly tedious reboot of an already mediocre home invasion thriller that ramps up nothing but the banality. If your idea of entertainment is watching an insufferable couple hide while a man and a woman in stupid masks walk about slowly then this is the film for you. Otherwise the only scary thing here is the fact they have already filmed chapters two and three. 59. In a Violent Nature You don't need to make people drink curdled milk to know it would taste awful. Similarly, you shouldn't need to make people watch a slasher film that follows the killer for the whole runtime to know it's a terrible idea. Dialogue is replaced by endless...

Room With a Viewer

Few directors can release films with same consistency as Steven Soderbergh (he averages over one a year this century), never mind in so many different genres. With Presence, he steps into the world of the supernatural. Don't be fooled by the "presence" of a spirit however, this is not a horror film, more a family drama infused with a sense of doom. The film begins with a family, consisting of domineering mother Rebecca (Lucy Liu), unhappy father Chris (Chris Sullivan), swimming star son Tyler (Eddy Maday) and troubled daughter Chloe (Colina Laing) moving into a new home. Things are far from rosy in the Sullivan household, Rebecca is involved in some unspecified shady work business and dotes on her athlete son (the whole reason for the move is to get him into a premium school) while showing little interest in her daughter, who's best friend recently died. Chris is fed up with his detached wife's favouritism and considering divorce while both the offspring are in ...

Econ Air

Single location thriller Flight Risk is the latest film to suffer from an "over eager" trailer. That is to say, the trailer covers pretty much everything that happens in the movie, more or less in the exact order it occurs. On the plus side, it isn't a film that was ever going to keep any secrets so it doesn't suffer as much as some others have. FBI agent Madelyn Harris (Michelle Dockery) takes a flight with informant Winston (Topher Grace) but a short way into their journey they discover the pilot, played by Mark Wahlberg, is actually a mob hitman there to end them both before Winston can squeal. There is a brief opening at an Alaskan cabin and the finale is on a runway, but for the most part it's just the three of them in the cabin of a small plain. Events unfold almost like a theatrical play as the three talk and argue with intermittent attempts at murder. The main thing to know about Flight Risk is that it is ridiculous. The decisions the characters make a...

My Girl 2025

Companion opens with Iris (Sophie Thatcher) reminiscing on her meet cute with Jack Quaid's Josh before accompanying him to a secluded house for a weekend of partying with his friends. Everything is normal on the surface but there are hints that something else is going on as Iris appears insanely dedicated to her boyfriend's happiness and at least one of his friends are a little off with her. Sure enough, a reveal around a third of the way in switches things up and the film becomes a bungled heist movie leading to a chase through the woods with freedom and lives on the line. If you have seen the final trailer for Companion you already know what the reveal is. I won't spoil it here for those who want to go in blind but it is fair to say this is, partially at least, a sci fi film. You may well spot the twist (especially with the Stepford Wives nod kicking things off) but something so morally abhorrent and potentially dangerous being completely commonplace and having so littl...

Eyes, Eyes Baby

You would be forgiven for thinking Heart Eyes is a simple holiday themed slasher movie riding the coattails of 2023's Thanksgiving. While it takes place on Valentine's Day and features a killer dispatching people with a cupid themed arsenal of weapons, that is only half the story. What Heart Eyes really is, is a full on rom com with a slasher slapped over the top of it. How does that work? Thanks to a heightened comic tone and some sharp writing, pretty bloody well. Olivia Holt plays Ally, a love cynic who stalks her ex online and whose bitterness has seeped into her work, endangering her job as a marketing agent for a jewellery company. She has a meet cute in a coffee shop with Mason Gooding's Jay, only to later find out he has been hired by her company to fix her campaign and may be a threat to her position. True love sceptic forced to work with a hot new guy (who happens to be a hopeless romantic) under tense circumstances is a classic rom com set up and there is even...

Dan Says its Alright

Search This Blog