F9

"Okay, listen up! I want 50 of the best men! I want guns! I want wheels, freaking X-wing fighters-- I don't care! The Millennium Falcon, Chewbacca if you can get ahold of him. Money's no object. Go." - Otto

release year: 2021
genre: action
viewing setting: home Bluray 12/14/22

synopsis: The team (plus some long-lost associates) gets back together to try and save the world from being hacked.

impressions: This one ratcheted up the insanity to a new level - not necessarily with chases, fights, and such but moreso in the _nature_ of what was going on. Every team member, even the timid computer hacker, can now run and fight and dodge bullets and debris and spinning vehicles. There's even an in-movie joke about them being basically indestructible. There's also...a Pontiac Fiero in space. Never mind the unanswered questions about how they space-proofed it, how they added thrusters, or how the drivers were supposed to get back down to Earth. The only thing that matters is that there's a Fiero in space. This is typical of the movie's general attitude: it's fun and thrilling but at the core it makes little sense. Another point, which I brought up about some earlier films in the series, is that all of these high-speed, high-impact car chases would absolutely, positively result in large numbers of innocent casualties - something that never gets addressed, which is bad because young stupid kids in the real world will try to imitate some of these stunts, and end up killing random people.

acting: Like many ensemble casts, this one's too big (and there have been too many movies) for me to cover each person again. Several characters from past films return, so this movie feels like a sort of unification. New to the proceedings are John Cena as Dom's angry super-spy little brother, and Thue Ersted Rasmussen as a rich European brat who's financing the evil plot.

final word: Silly but entertaining.

back to the main review page