Somewhere, in the course of seven outings, those street racers from “The Fast and the Furious” became high-end James Bond spies.
Jumping buildings, defeating armies and ruining more cars than a lifetime of drivers ed students, the ragtag team is now a steely SEAL-level squad, able to take out the most heinous criminals in the world.
That’s fine, but the shift certainly changes the mood of the franchise and makes “The Fate of the Furious,” the eighth installment, look like one of Tom Cruise’s impossible missions.
Although it starts with an old-school street race (in Cuba, no less), the film quickly escalates when a hacker named Cipher (Charlize Theron) takes Dom (Vin Diesel) hostage and forces him to play on another team. That arouses interest from the “family” and brings its members together to fight the supervillain and return their friend to his lady love, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez). Before the obvious happens, there’s enough mayhem to fuel several “Avengers” films.
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Jason Statham returns to taunt Dwayne Johnson. Tyrese Gibson hangs in to toy with Ludacris. For good measure, there’s a cameo by Helen Mirren and a walk-through by Kurt Russell that serves to goad the regulars and introduce Scott Eastwood.
Looking a lot like his dad, Eastwood is a butt of the “Furious” squad’s jokes and given more screen time than those who have been with this since Day One.
Director F. Gary Gray tries too hard to make this another car chase/action film. He covers more ground than Jason Bourne and toys with the idea of Russians as potential enemies.
Cipher, though, is the real threat. Theron, with long dread-like hair extensions, shows one emotion – anger – and never veers.
We don’t learn why she has gotten to this position of power but she has so many toys (and minions) at her disposal it’s likely she owns a lair, too.
To keep Dom in tow, she brings back an old character (no, it’s not Paul Walker’s Brian, although he’s referenced). It’s a good twist, but one that even a guy with a Speak and Spell could have figured out.
In addition to tearing up the streets of New York, the gang drives on ice and takes on nuclear submarines. Jumping the shark is definitely a hallmark and a way for Gray to stretch what should have been a 90-minute film into a two-hour-plus epic.
“Fate of the Furious” doesn’t warrant the time or the huge cast but it does reset the franchise for at least two more films. It has closure, but it’s not the kind we thought we got with the seventh edition. That wrapped things nicely. This just tosses around the paper.
