SECONDSCREEN

Fast & Furious 8 (12A) HHHH is a ridiculous film that defies the laws of physics and simple common sense on numerous occasions. However, eight films into a franchise now 16 years old and showing no sign of running out of steam, I don’t suppose that matters. Because it’s also a ridiculous and spectacular amount of fun, as founder member of the street-racing turned big-heists gang Dominic Toretto – not so much played as growled by Vin Diesel – goes rogue.

Suddenly it’s Dom against the rest of the gang as he teams up with super-hacker and uber-arms dealer Cipher, who, because this is a F&F film, also has to be super-hot too. So she’s played – rather well – by Charlize Theron, pictured right with Diesel. With Helen Mirren also appearing in a cameo, the ever-more popular franchise appears to be having little trouble attracting top talent these days.

But why has Dom suddenly gone over to the dark side? Why is he helping Cipher steal an electromagnetic pulse bomb and a briefcase full of nuclear codes? And is there anything that Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and the rest of the gang – including Dom’s poor confused wife, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), the only other survivor from the first film – can do to stop him?

With a climax that sees a nuclear submarine pursuing a Lamborghini, it’s all nonsense. There’s the occasional lapse of taste but it’s good to see Cuba being used in an American film again after half a century of embargo, a scene involving the mass hacking of vehicle navigation systems is brilliant (and could put an early end to Google self-drive cars), and there’s all the fun of trying to keep up, as familiar faces return, go and sometimes come back again. Often before we’ve worked out who they are. Oh, and look out for Scott Eastwood (yes, son of Clint), who arrives as the incompetent sidekick of Mr Nobody (the still rather good Kurt Russell), but looks as if he might be staying around to fill the good-looking hole left by the late Paul Walker. The Handmaiden (18) HHH is full of things that are not what they appear – Koreans pretending to be Japanese, thieves pretending to be lady’s maids and humble farmer’s sons pretending to be counts. But nor is the film itself quite what it appears.