The Fate of the Furious (Fast & Furious 8)

Bigger, faster and more furious? Dir: F. Gary Gray 2hrs 16mins (12A)

The silliness of this film begins with the number in its title, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail. “Can you believe they’ve churned out eight of these films, each faster and more furious than the one before?” Yet what’s even more surprising about this mega-budget action movie is that, for all its absurdities, it has an “intoxicating sense of fun”.

As ever, the plot is just an excuse for car chases and explosions, said Gwilym Mumford in The Guardian. After reformed criminal Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) is blackmailed into joining forces with a sinister cyberterrorist (Charlize Theron), who has plans for world domination, it’s up to his old friend, security agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) – with the help of a former foe (Jason Statham) – to stop him. But don’t knock it: the formula has made this franchise one of the Hollywood success stories of recent years.

Oddly enough, the action sequences are actually the most unsatisfying aspect of this cumbersome blockbuster, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph. Indeed, I’d go so far as to say that the Fast & Furious franchise hasn’t produced a single comprehensibly shot and edited car chase in the last eight years. Overall, there’s just too much clutter and not enough “sense of peril”. But Helen Mirren, in an entertaining cameo as Statham’s foul-mouthed mother, does provide some consolation.