The Fast and Furious franchise is probably the most unlikely billion-dollar franchise ever created.
As that description may suggest, the films have been somewhat of a mixed bag.
Though stylishly directed by Justin Lin, who would become the franchise’s go-to guy, this is the definite nadir of the series.
There are some elements that work.
Lucas Black went on to be a likeable presence in NCIS: New Orleans, but he does not have the movie star charisma of the man he replaced, Paul Walker, and the journey of his character from man who can’t “drift” in his car to a man who can just is not that interesting.
Though released eight years after the original, this is very much the moody adolescent of the series.
In other films, this dour seriousness is set against moments of humor and high-octane set pieces.
Without that first set piece, it is hard to imagine this franchise being able to continue for much longer.
Though the joke about this franchise is that it is obsessed with family, it is only with the sixth film that this slides into self-parody.
While Mission Impossible: Fallout had a lot of fun with Tom Cruise jumping from one London landmark to another , Fast 6 makes the British capitol look like it is made entirely of concrete car parks and warehouses.
This means that nearly every character has almost nothing to do – why tie yourself in awkward knots to bring back Han if you have no place for him?! Eliminate about five characters and bring back The Rock and you would have a movie at least one and a half stars better.
All this would be just about forgivable, but then the screenplay peppers in meta-“jokes” about how it is that the characters have defied death so many times.
It is also fascinating as the rare film in the franchise where Dom actually loses—by the end of the movie, his DVD heist has failed, his friend Jesse is dead, Brian has matched him in a quarter mile race and he’s driven his car into a truck.
Compared to later movies, however, the film is not a success.
There is a lot of fun to be had with just how 2001 The Fast and The Furious is, from the use of floppy disks to Dom’s hilariously baggy jeans.
Just as The Rock brought a breath of fresh air to the franchise when he joined in Fast Five, so too does his spin-off movie.
Fast and Furious films have increasingly not let trifling concerns like gravity get in the way of a good set piece, but bringing in Idris Elba as a cyborg may be a step too far away from reality.
The film has two leads with genuine comic timing, a rarity for this franchise, and the most enjoyable moments of this film just see our leads bickering.
The central hour or so of Furious 7 is about as perfect a Fast and Furious film as is possible.
The final set piece is almost impossible to follow, with far too many moving parts and the director, James Wan, making the same wrong decision so many of these films do and shooting at night, making the action even more unclear—even if The Rock wielding a gatling gun never fails to raise the spirits.
Fast fans, however, may find themselves forgetting this clumsy final action, however, due to the surprisingly touching way the films pay tribute to Paul Walker, who died prior to the movie’s release.
While other movies in the franchise struggle with overly dour beginnings and ends, F8 is fun throughout, from The Rock coaching his daughter’s sport team at the start to the eye-popping insanity of the team facing off against a Russian nuclear sub at the end.
If the film has flaws, it was here when the franchise started to detach from reality a touch too much.
Though the first sequel, directed by Boyz n the Hood’s John Singleton, may share a visual over-the-top sensibility with that Batman movie, what it really brought to the franchise was its more James Bond sensibilities.
Bond references pepper the film.
Though some may miss the glowering presence of Vin Diesel, new co-lead Tyrese Gibson also brings something desperately missing from the first movies: Jokes.
Ten years into the franchise, all the good parts of the series are brought together and made bigger and better.
Fast Five also adds the final piece of the puzzle that gave the franchise its mojo, Dwayne Johnson.