Running on empty

FAST & FURIOUS 8 (12A)

THE law of diminishing returns usually kicks in around the fourth instalment of a movie franchise.

This is when Superman joined CND, Jar Jar Binks teamed up with Star Wars and George Clooney put nipples on the batsuit.

What makes the Fast & Furious films unique is that No4 is precisely when the series took off.

When director Justin Lin took over in 2009, he ditched the street-racing hook to create an insanely entertaining action series. When he got two muscle cars to haul an entire bank vault through the streets of Rio in the fifth film he started a tradition.

From then on, each subsequent movie would be locked in an explosive game of one-upmanship with its predecessor.

Sadly, that run comes to an end with the disappointing eighth outing.

New director F. Gary Gray delivers one great fight scene, a couple of wildly inventive car chases and a few decent quips. But nothing here would make it on to the series’ highlights reel.

The twist this time is Vin Diesel’s Dom turns baddie when he joins forces with Charlize Theron’s cyber-terrorist Cypher, both pictured, to steal various WMDs and help her fuzzy plan to take over the world.

That’s when shadowy spook Mr Nobody (Kurt Russell) and his dopey sidekick (Scott Eastwood) decide to turn Dom’s crew and his last nemesis Deckard against him.

It’s a decent idea but as Dom is never allowed to fully explore his dark side, we always suspect he’ll still be back for the closing barbecue.

But the betrayal is enough to set off a string of entertaining if overly fussy action scenes.

The big one involves the “family” driving for their lives across a frozen lake while being pursued by a Russian nuclear submarine.

It’s a high-octane idea that is delivered in a very pedestrian style. The geography is confusing, and there are too many obvious computer effects and not enough peril.

Some decent one-liners from Dwayne Johnson and some bone-crunching fight scenes from Jason Statham keep things ticking over.

But this is the first Fast & Furious that feels like it’s running on fumes.