The flicks
May the horse (power) be with you as THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS rolls into cinemas, and take another trip p into the mild blue yonder with SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE
THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS (M) Director: F. Gary Gray ( Straight Outta Compton) Starring: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Charlize Theron, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Helen Mirren, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris. Rating : hhhjk
JUST in case you didn’t get the memo, it has actually been official for quite some time: the
Fast and Furious franchise is Star Wars for petrolheads.
At the nucleus of this souped-up universe you will find Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto, who is Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Chewbacca all rolled into one.
Now, with the release of the eighth film in the multi-billion-dollar-grossing series, Diesel has added some Darth Vader to the tank. Or, as one character in The Fate of the
Furious astutely observes: “Dom Toretto has gone rogue.”
If you’ve been living off the fumes of the last few F and F movies — which have often collided head-on with genuine moments of goofy, guilty-pleasure greatness — then you’ll be pleased to learn there is more of that kooky comfort fuel burned here than ever before.
Let’s not bother with the plot so much. The screenwriters clearly haven’t, so why should we?
The need-to-know on why Dom has abandoned Team Toretto is confined to a bonkers blackmail scheme concocted by the most sinister computer hacker in the world, Cipher (Charlize Theron).
Some dangerous gadgets will fall in and out of the wrong hands on a repeated basis. The future of the planet will be called into question on occasion. And a lot of stuff will be blown up at any available juncture.
As we have come to expect, the best action sequences in The Fate of the Furious keep switching from incredible to insane with ridiculous ease.
A key part of the juiced-up joy that comes from experiencing The Fate of the Furious is processing the implausible scope of its highly kinetic action scenes on your own.
SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE (G) Director: Kelly Asbury (Shrek 2) Starring: Demi Lovato, Mandy Patinkin, Julia Roberts, Ellie Kemper Rating: hhjkk
THIS middling animated adventure sees Smurfette and her friends Brainy, Clumsy and Hefty set out on an urgent exploration of the Forbidden Forest, leading to the discovery of the biggest secret in Smurf history.
This third outing for the Smurfs is a back-tobasics affair, dispensing with the (not-so-hot) live-action stuff of the past, and pumping up the bright and bouncy cartooning.
The simplified approach makes a better fit for preschoolers and early primary schoolers. If your kids are a touch too old for the current Peppa Pig flick on release and you’re after an alternative to the below-par The Boss Baby, this is as good a pick as any.
Not a lot of substance here — hey, it is the Smurfs we’re talking about, after all! — but members of the target audience will have few complaints.
A stellar voice cast is spearheaded by Demi Lovato, Mandy Patinkin, Julia Roberts and Ellie Kemper.
However, mention must made of the new peaks of craziness scaled by the new film’s finale. Let the record show a nuclear submarine somehow joining a high-speed chase across the Siberian tundra is going to be very hard to top in future instalments.
So what else is there that pleasingly seals The Fate of the Furious?
As usual, Diesel’s Toretto gets all the best stunts and Dwayne Johnson’s Hobbs gets all the best lines, while the lesser cohorts (Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, Michelle Rodriguez and company) all make the most they can of their regulated screen time. No real surprises there, then.
As for fresh biz on the performance front, Theron does make for an imposing villain, even if she is slightly wasted emoting frumpily at a computer monitor a lot of the time.
Jason Statham brings some fresh energy into play while reprising his role as the British hardman Deckard, who has softened to the extent that he can now engage in lethal combat while carrying a live infant in a baby capsule.