Action

Fast & Furious 9 Review | Completely Crazy in the Best Way Possible

Published

2 years ago

June 22, 2021

“If we obey the laws of physics, we’re gonna be fine”. Words you’d never imagine you’d hear one day being spoken in a Fast & Furious film. The franchise has seen cars jumping out a plane, cars driving a safe around the streets of Rio de Janeiro, cars jumping out of a skyscraper and into another. And then into another skyscraper. The laws of physics are long gone in this franchise but now we hear these ludicrous words spoken by Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges as he and Roman are in a Pontiac Fiero with a rocket strapped onto the top heading into outer space. Yes- they’re heading into space this time!

Fast & Furious 9 has somehow managed to get even more bonkers than the previous instalments and it’s completely crazy but in the best way possible. Vin Diesel’s Dom and his gang are back and they’re facing their toughest villain yet. This time it’s in the form of John Cena who plays Jakob, Dom’s younger brother. It is a bit strange that in a franchise that’s so big on ‘family’ we’ve never heard of Dom’s brother before but nonetheless he’s the big bad that this film needs.

Fast & Furious 9 is exactly the film fans of the franchise will want. If you loved all the previous instalments, then it’s definitely the film for you and you should see it on the biggest screen you can to really take in the wonderful action scenes in all their glory. If, however, you’ve seen the previous films and rolled your eyes at the absurdity and not liked it, I think it’s safe to say that this isn’t the film for you, and you should avoid it all costs.

The franchise has become much more self-aware, and whilst for Vin Diesel this is probably his Shakespeare, there’s a lot more fun and humour to be had in Fast 9 than in the previous instalments. I found myself constantly laughing just at the absurdity of the stunts that are going on. But in a good way. It was so outlandish and crazy, but I loved every second of it. Obviously, them going to space is the pinnacle of the franchise (although I’m sure Fast 10 will come up with something even more ridiculous) but the whole film is full of moments like these. Towards the start in one of the opening car chases we hear Dom asking “how fast?”. He’s asking how fast they need to be driving in order that they can drive over a land mine and be going fast enough that it can explode and not hurt them.

It really is so much fun seeing what crazy action set-piece they can come up with next and it’s an absolute joy to watch. It’s exactly the big budget popcorn film we need right now to return to the cinema with. Not everything makes sense and the laws of physics are so far out the window but seeing cars being thrown about the streets because of giant magnets is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before and it’s entertaining to watch. If you like ridiculous action scenes, then it’s impossible not to enjoy this film.

Fast & Furious 9 is the first time the franchise has taken a deeper look at Dom’s past with multiple flashback scenes to a younger Dom in an effort to really draw out much more emotion. And whilst the film doesn’t do a bad job of this and whilst Toretto’s backstory is relevant to this film’s plot, it’s not necessarily the audience’s number one priority for a Fast & Furious film which is why the film’s runtime is a hefty 2 hours and 25 minutes.

It is wonderful though seeing the Fast cast back again and seeing characters like Jordana Brewster’s Mia and Sung Kang’s Han return after a few films. Han somehow survived what we thought was his death back in Tokyo Drift (and then again in the Fast & Furious 6 credits scene) and it might not be the best explanation but it’s always a joy to see fan’s favourite Han back again. On top of the returning cast, John Cena is a welcome addition to the franchise and fits in so well that you almost wouldn’t notice that Dwayne Johnson wasn’t back this time around.

Fast & Furious 9 somehow doubles down on the ridiculousness of the previous films and is even crazier than ever but that just makes the film even more of a wild thrill-ride that’s so entertaining to watch.

★★★★☆

Fast and Furious 9 is released in UK cinemas on Thursday June 24^th

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Di_PJyDGIg

FILM RATING

Related Topics:Action Fast & Furious Fast & Furious 9 John Cena Jordana Brewster Michelle Rodriguez Vin Diesel

Up Next

Marvel | Marvel: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – Official Trailer

Don't Miss

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard | Review

Jed Wagman

Click to comment

0 Comments

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Action

Godzilla Minus One | Official Trailer #2

Post war Japan is at its lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster, baptized in the horrific power of the atomic bomb

Published

4 weeks ago

November 6, 2023

Staff

Genre:

Action, Adventure, Drama

Release Date:

December 1, 2023

Director:

Takashi Yamazaki

Cast:

Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada

Plot Summary:

Post war Japan is at its lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster, baptized in the horrific power of the atomic bomb

FILM RATING

Action

The Continental Review: Not The Prequel We Needed

Published

2 months ago

October 4, 2023

Kevin Verma

Ever since Lionsgate greenlit this series in early 2017, fans of the franchise have been eagerly anticipating to see how the John Wick universe expands. 4 movies in, the John Wick franchise is widely known as one of the greatest action movie franchises of all time with our titular character (a.k.a Baba Yaga) becoming one of the most iconic and bad-ass figures ever in Hollywood. The Continental: From The World of John Wick is a prequel series that tells the story of Winston Scott and how he became the manager of New York’s The Continental branch.

The miniseries was developed by Greg Coolidge, Kirk Ward and Shawn Simmons. It is executive produced by Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese, Derek Kolstad, David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, the director of all four John Wick movies. It is structured as a 3-night event told through three 90-minute episodes. The series was originally supposed to air on Starz, but the network sold it to Peacock in 2022. After 6 years in development, it finally aired on Peacock this September.

A lot has been made of the subtitle of the project ever since it was announced. The fact that the makers needed to include it says a lot about the show. It almost felt like the prime marketing asset for it many times as the other promotional material didn’t necessarily create a lot of hype for the show. Albert Hughes directed the first and third episodes, while Charlotte Branstrom directed the second, and disappointingly both directors do not bring the same novelty or creative prowess that Chad Stahelski managed to bring in the John Wick movies.

The show also surprisingly lacks any real star power. This franchise is one of Lionsgate’s most prized assets, so you would imagine that they would make sure to get a big cast and crew for this prequel miniseries, but they didn’t. Colin Woodell as Winston Scott is the clear standout among the cast despite delivering only a decent performance, which says a lot about the acting standards in this 3-episode miniseries. Many have criticized the casting of Mel Gibson in the series, but I personally had no issue with his performance and he’s also the most recognizable member of the cast despite having no real audience pull anymore.

The writing doesn’t offer too much to ponder upon or any seriously shocking turns in the story as most of the focus is on making the product as epic, badass and action-packed as possible. Some of the characters had some interesting layers to them, especially Charon (Ayomide Adegun) and Lou (Jessica Allain). Lemmy (Adam Shapiro) provides some much-needed comic relief with his witty dialogues. The structuring of the story works really well as a 3-night event which sets the high stakes and sets a standard of intensity for the narrative.

But the thing that people were most looking forward to, was the action and how it fared against John Wick. Unfortunately, that department was inconsistent as well. Ben Robson’s fight sequence in the early part of the first episode was great and it makes you optimistic that the action would get better from here on, but it never does. Most of the action blocks here involve explosions and guns rather than the hand-to-hand combat John Wick franchise is known for. Some of the action was awesome and some of it sadly wasn’t.

The Continental: From the World of John Wick brings a lot of glamour as it tries to expand its world but fails to engage with its paper-thin plot. The characters are mostly dull with a formulaic villain and misses the presence of a magnetic protagonist like Wick. A prequel about Wick’s backstory would’ve been much more interesting than this inconsistent prequel event saved by its style and some great action. It has almost enough to be its own thing but doesn’t quite have enough to match its parent movies.

The Continental: From the World of John Wick premieres on Peacock in the US and Prime Video in the UK and Australia on 22 September, with new episodes weekly.