What a fantastic flick to welcome folks back to summer blockbusters
in the theater. If you want to hear me and a couple of other LAMB members rave
about this highest level of quality nonsense, be sure to give the LAMBCast
episode on F9 a listen: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/lambcast/episodes/2021-06-28T12_24_53-07_00
I could try to start this review with a quick summary of what happened in the previous 8 movies and who all these characters are, and what brought them to this situation, but honestly – it is not at all necessary. Suffice it to say that Dominic Toretto leads a ‘family’ of street racers who started in The Fast and The Furious in June of 2001. In that movie, twenty years ago, they were stealing DVD players from trucks while driving. Now, 9 movies later, they are basically a group of international spies, hackers, geniuses, sharpshooters, hand to hand combat masters, and Corona drinkers (that part hasn’t changed).
The cold open gives us the visualization of the story that Dom has told us before, his father getting run into the wall while racing in 1985 and him going to jail for beating the other driver with a wrench. We then get some fun credits and jump to present day where Dom and Letty enjoying married life with his son (with Elena), little Brian, completely off the grid and away from everyone else. Well, Dom is enjoying being off the grid. Letty seems very dissatisfied. They are suddenly visited by Tej, Roman, and Ramsey who bring news that Mr. Nobody’s plane has been brought down in a generic south American country. He had some dangerous cargo and sent a distress call that only our Fast Family would receive. Dom refuses to go help, but Letty sets out to join the others. While reviewing the footage, Dom notices a duplicate of his cross necklace, and suddenly decides to join the mission.
During what is an insane opening action set piece that feels absolutely built to be added to the Fast and Furious bit of the Universal Studios tour (just give them their own ride in a full soundstage like the Transformers ride – they need it!), Dom realizes that his long-lost brother, Jakob, is his new foe. Jakob steals the piece of tech and escapes by jumping his car OFF A CLIFF TO BE CAUGHT BY A PLANE WITH A MAGNET. And that is before Dom drives his cliff into the remains of a bridge to catch a cable and SWING LIKE TARZAN. Just in the first action set piece!
The movie only continues to get more exciting from there, finding ways to bring back additional members of the Fast Family – including my favorite, Han, who died a few movies ago. It also gives both Mia and Letty, and even Ramsey more to do this time around. Director Justin Lin has outdone himself with this one, and I can’t even begin to speculate where the tenth movie will go. This one felt appropriate in a way as a near-finale because it brought back so many people, established Jakob, and then rehabilitated Jakob (I can only assume he will join the family next movie) – it even worked in a touching tribute to Paul Walker and gathered everyone for a barbeque and Coronas at the end. It is near perfection. Oh, and they drive a car in space – THEY DRIVE A CAR IN SPACE.
I will say that I felt Vin Diesel as Dom was more invested in this one. While it may feel strange to say, this movie benefits from being Rock-less. The Rock is a star, and he didn’t really ever fit in with the Fast Family as his nature is to outshine everyone around him. With him not in this movie, the family could retrieve their group chemistry and truly place Vin back at the center, where he wants to be. John Cena as Jakob is much more capable of joining an ensemble and working towards a group goal.
Jordana Brewster has always asked for more stunts and Michelle Rodriguez has mentioned in the past that she would not return if Letty didn’t get more to do. Both have action set pieces in this movie and more family scenes as well. It returned each of them to being some of my favorite characters.
Ludacris continues to shine as Tej, and he and Nathalie Emmanuel as Ramsey were wonderful in working out all the details of the completely insane plans. I loved Ramsey’s non-driving during the action set piece in Edinburgh. I also enjoyed the two of them teasing Tyrese’s Roman through most of the movie. Tyrese once again is exceptional and definitely provides the audience viewpoint in this insane world as he sums up the action from previous movies, to the point of mentioning how completely ridiculous some of their adventures have been.
Charlize Theron returns as Cipher – so far the only villain to not eventually be turned to joining the Fast Family, which I hope she never does, because after all, she did kill Elena. She’s delightfully evil in this as she tries her hardest to out-bad-guy Thue Ersted Rasmussen’s Otto, the generic money-behind-the-villain’s-plot. She easily succeeds.
The return of Sung Kang as Han while eating a bag of chips was fantastic – I can only assume that Gal Gadot will return in the next one as Gisele just fell off a car and these folks have proven to be nearly impossible to kill.
Michael Rooker shows up as Dom’s dad’s racing buddy Buddy. Helen Mirren returns for a bit as Queenie Shaw, the matriarch of the insane Shaw clan. Don Omar returns briefly as Santos. Shea Whigham returns as Agent Stasiak. Even better was the return of Shad Moss (Bow Wow) as Twinkie and Lucas Black as Sean from Tokyo Drift. They have now been completely returned to the fold to the point that they got to join the barbeque at the end.
I love these movies – I love the inclusive cast, the international feel, and finally in this one it feels like the tone is completely understood and accepted by everyone involved – they all embrace the over-the-top nonsense joy. I think this might be my new favorite in the series. It doesn’t matter if you have never seen any of the other movies because characters keep reminding everyone what happened previously, at least enough to let you enjoy the action of this one. Grab your family and some Corona and some popcorn, turn off your brain and hit the NOS button for an absolute summer tentpole blockbuster.
9 out of 10 – losing one point for not bringing Gisele back
from the dead yet…fingers crossed for the next one.
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