Fast & Furious 8

Being the screenwriter of a billion-dollar franchise must be a bitch. Sniffing cocaine out of the asses of L.A.'s top prostitutes and knowing that no matter how much shit you do on paper, you'll get away with it and someone will actually film it eventually. Don't be fooled by the perfect production glitz because this is Hollywood sludge that lacks even a shred of judgment. I don't mind the overblown action orgy, where stuntmen go all out and everything is tuned by special effects artists who were paid handsomely for their overtime. It bothers me that it flies around the world without anchoring itself in the plot, that so many Deus ex machina enter the plot, and that even the zombie is supposed to be excused by the fact that family is the most important thing. It’s overpriced kitsch that does not caricature the trend set by the fifth film in the series but instead degrades it. (18.07.2017)

The Fast and Furious brand isn’t about cars like it used to. It’s not about the races or the smell of burnt tires anymore. Now it’s a brand ensuring high-quality action orgies that may be as dumb as a doorknob, but they have bigger balls than an elephant does. Moreover, they have such a solid casting of action movie actors that I feel like they’ve created a sequel to The Expendables. Personally, I liked Jason Statham the most. He has found himself in his recent roles and he had some amazing lines here. The monstrous actor The Rock comes close second and the entire rest of them follows, including Charlize Theron who was pretty sickening as a villain. (01.10.2017)

Good for me. Surprisingly good, because they probably realized that what they are about to serve to the viewers cannot be sold with a serious face. So they focused more on humor, wisecracks, and irony. And it works. The over-the-top action is interspersed with moments where it is evident that everyone on set is actually having quite a bit of fun. In this eighth installment, they can do whatever they want, so they openly disregard rules, laws of physics, or logic. Vin Diesel, F. Gary Gray, and the whole gang simply received a bunch of money and had a blast like five-year-old boys whose parents built them a race track for the first time and now they can play... maybe Fast and Furious. Yeah, it's nonsense, but this time so sincerely exaggerated that it's impossible not to enjoy. And Jason Statham confirms here that it's a pity Hollywood discovered his comedic talent too late. I had a good time. (16.05.2017)

It´s really sad when a similar essence of überblockbuster, which would like to rely on long excessive action-packed CGI escapades full of dozens of raining cars or nuclear submarines chasing the most luxurious sport cars on the planet, where perhaps two consecutive sequences cannot do without a Bay-scale explosion, only work during scenes where testosterone sparkles between Rock and Statham, where one or the other takes on the role of babysitter or women team coach, where Charlize and Kurt fully enjoy the guilty pleasure potential of their counterparts, etc. Thanks to making this movie move up to another level in term of everything (I was surprised it could be more absurd), this movie is the better one from the last two movie. But still, it has not found balance between various (what is missing are classic kicking someone´s ass moments which is a shame and it´s hard to believe with this cast) incomprehensible), team work and within the scope of a stylishly exaggerated blockbuster of the five. #family (13.04.2017)

The more obvious the complexity of the plot twists in which the gang has been throwing itself five installments in a row, the greater my excitement for the resulting film. Just a while ago, I was worried that there was nowhere to go, nowhere to build expectations, and nowhere for the characters to go. However, for a long time now, I have seen that none of this is necessary. Vin Diesel, from the position of the main face, incorporates all conceivable fan wishes into the scripts, including the dream (and surprisingly perfect) portrayal of the main antagonist. In the slower passages, he murmurs several phrases on the theme of "My Family" with an incomprehensible bass voice, and at the same time, he manages to come up with a surprise that no one expects (this time it is that stealer of scenes, Jason Statham). Various criticisms of physics or logic have never been more pointless. This saga operates in its own universe, and I will be happy if it continues at similar two-year intervals for a long time. (18.05.2017)

Fantastically filmed hogwash which I find incredibly entertaining. Great effects give even the most bizarre scenes a feeling of reality. Despite all of the crazy shit going down, the screenwriter manages to keep the story within firmly set bounds, and his imagination is admirable. Rock and Statham are delightful both with their cool lines and their friendly mockery of each other. Diesel is just classic. He made this movie for fun, earning some money at the same time. (21.04.2017)

The quality of the Fast and Furious movies can be assessed, for example, according to which you remember. The first one is memorable because it was relatively cheap, down-to-earth and original. Everyone remembers the fifth one because it brought a proper boost and a leap up in quality, plus a lot of great directorial ideas and audience draws (The Rock, etc.). The rest blends together with only the really great highlights being memorable, whether good or not. The eighth episode is no different and thus falls into the category of nothing exceptional. None of the action scenes are really climactic (CGI mess doesn't automatically mean awesome), Charlize Theron, Jason Statham and co. are fine, but with that kind of acting potential to piss on cars in two or three scenes, get run over by a submarine and that’s it? Where are the full contact fights like The Rock vs Diesel, or Rodriguez vs Carano? Those were the highlights in the action, this one has nothing of the sort. All the flashy gimmicks don't cover up the lack of creative ideas, and the 250 million dollar visuals aren't going to make this a macho action ride. The family feeling continues, okay, the main characters are old enough for that, but the best scenes are not the action ones, and that’s not quite okey. (14.04.2017)

But... ummm... Why not. It's soulless, but it's fun, although more than Vin Diesel and his family (put aside five crowns every time that word comes up and you have enough for a movie ticket) benefits from Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham (I understand why they earned their own film), from Charlize Theron, and especially from the sympathetically excessive action, in which cars behave like wild animals and you wait for them to turn into Transformers, and when a submarine joins the final chase, it's actually not inappropriate at all. (30.06.2021)

An ultra-brutally overblown action flick (at times to the point where I was expecting the Death Star to be the target of the villains and The Rock to pull a Mustang with a built-in R2-D2 out of the garage), but one that manages the near-impossible feat of finding a workable balance between over-the-top superhero antics, where absolutely anything goes, and a more serious psychological conflict leading to seriously motivated nonsensical antics. And the middle ground is both in the addictive humour and the tremendous insight, thanks to which the film immediately gets the audience exactly where it wants to go, and every sci-fi element is simply funny and somehow natural. But there’s also the very well constructed script, which, for a change, deftly handles the limited communicativeness and resorts much less to visibly improvised and wannabe cool dialogues (and when it does, it's quite good, e.g. the delicate verbal shootouts between Johnson and Statham, which are the steroid of the first half). In addition to being deliberately over-the-top and spectacular, the action is also royally entertaining and intense, culminating in a double finale that is one of the most gripping in history (Statham now aspires to be the nanny of the century, his scene with the baby being the best sequence of the entire series). Charlize is a great villain, Gybson still isn't annoying, I still love Rodriguez, and I sincerely hope Gray stays fast and furious, because after the miserable Seven, my interest in this testosterone-laden franchise shot to considerable heights. 80% (18.04.2017)

This series has become my heart's delight, and it's very likely that I won't rate any future installments differently than 100%. For me, this is just a fantastic group that I'm happy to return to. There are emotions in it, it's entertaining, and damn, it's awesome in terms of special effects. The action ideas are so wonderfully crazy that they make me purr with delight. (24.04.2017)

I'm up for all kinds of crazy and fun stuff and I can handle a lot in terms of overkill, but the eighth installment of F&F almost goes beyond the point of tolerability. There are too few chases for a franchise about cars and few good (meaning memorable) cars in general. There is a minimum of actually funny moments for a comedy, so, ironically, the funniest scenes are with Statham practically whenever he appears on screen. Oddly enough, although three of the biggest action movie stars appear in the movie, we never get to see them fight one another, and what's worse, after the prison break at the beginning of the movie, there won’t be any better fights. It's also too serious for a parody (classic emphasis on the family). All things considered, I might ignore the fact that the whole story is totally ridiculous and illogical, but what I really hate is when I can accurately guess all the future developments. Even though I am usually terrible at guessing, I got practically everything right. Anyway, a good choice if you’re looking for a two-hours’ worth of mindless entertainment. (18.04.2017)