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NOTE: The following review will eventually be moved to a special 'Fast Franchise' page.

Y'know, these movies have been going on now for a solid 20+ years with their shares of ups, downs and altogether WTFs. The 'Fast' franchise has gone through and provided us with what is, in my humble opinion, the mindless action series Hollywood has needed for a long time. I like to think of these movies in a light that shines almost as bright as the Schwarzenegger films of the 80s. NOT everyone is gonna agree with that idea, but I do think people should at least consider it instead of just being harsh with criticisms about how "stupid" it all is.

Back in the day, yes, we had our fair share of critics like Siskel and Ebert who would turn their noses up at certain things. But for the most part, going to the movies was about escapism and having fun. So if we got an action-packed Schwarzenegger movie, we all knew we weren't going to those for good plots (excluding some titles of course). We wanted to see witty one-liners, balls-to-the-wall action, and of course, the defiance of physics itself. The 'Fast' franchise offers up all of this, and has reached the point of complete self-awareness, as clearly shown in 'F9'. But really... when do things start to wear thin?

In case you couldn't tell, speaking for myself, I'm typically entertained by these movies, but I definitely see some titles as "lesser" than others. This is unfortunately one of those, but I might put it at the higher end of things for reasons I'll get to shortly. To open things up in the meantime, however, the film starts with a flashback to the events of 'Fast 5' in which 'Furious' leads Dom Torretto Vin Diesel and Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) hijack a safe from the corrupt politician and drug lord, Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida). Spoiler alert; Reyes is KIA, and happens to be the father of a ruthless man of vengeance named Dante (Jason Momoa) who is out for blood.

Meanwhile, we are reintroduced to Dom and his "Family" in the present day, living a happy life of peace with their family still growing. However, Dom, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and their son, Brian "Little B" (Leo Abelo Perry) have a literal rude awakening one night from their arch nemesis, a seemingly fatally wounded Cipher (Charlize Theron) who warns them that the "Devil" is on his way and that they share a common enemy in this Dante guy. The rest of the team, including Han (Sung Kang), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges) Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), meanwhile, has been sent on a mission to Rome.

To no one's real surprise, the mission turns out to be a setup, so Dom and Letty leave to intercept, leaving "Little B" with Mia (Jordana Brewster). In Rome, the basic plot grows to be Dante attempting to make Dom suffer as much as possible by carelessly tearing apart everything around him - both mentally and physically. To that end, I will give the movie credit for keeping things intense, despite the fact that we all know how well these guys can all defy physics. So much of what helped with that, at least from my perspective, was the way Momoa played this role - one might say "Joker"-like, perhaps bordering on a ripoff, BUT, he still stole the show, in my opinion. Maybe that's just my bias toward chaotic characters though.

But while Momoa's addition added a little spice to things, I have to admit that some other characters started to get stale. Speifically, I'm starting to get a bit annoyed with the dynamic of Roman and Tej. They've essentially become a bickering married couple at this point, and it's just not that funny anymore. Our lead, Dom, seems to sort of balance things out here though, if only because he's become his own stereotype. I mean if you think of Dom from the 'Fast' franchise, just about anything he's known to do, from mentioning the importance of family to making constipated-looking mean faces (as seen above), it's all there, and nowadays, that's just a part of the fun of it all.

Along the way, we see some old faces and new faces alike, as though the film is a sort of "Greatest Hits" as far as the cast goes, so there's a good amount of fan service going on here - including a dangerous street race, which is the whole reason we started loving these movies in the first place. Altogether, this was still a fun movie, but this brings me back to its self-awareness, and how much is too much? It took all the charm out of how 'F9' did it, and just straight up tells the audience from Brie Larson's (one of the additions) mouth how these movies tend to work. This might be a problem if it weren't for one thing the edning of the film left me with - this is just the beginning of the end! (By the way, if you hate cliffhangers... maybe skip this one, because... damn!)

3/5

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