After 8 successful films in The Fast & Furious series Hollywood has released the first stand-alone in the franchise from director David Leitch (Atomic Blonde & Deadpool 2). It’s basically the same ol’ car chases and nice cars of course, fights, guns a blazing, good guys, bad guys and set pieces that look lavish. This is a Dwayne Johnson and Jason Stathman model movie and popcorn is extra. The movie starts out in a split screen with Luke Hobbs (Johnson) and Deckard Shaw, who originally were introduced to us in episode 7 of The Fast & Furious, going about their daily rituals, wearing fine duds, and drive fancy wheels (of course, it’s all about that) when they both get wind of a deadly super virus that melts you from the inside quicker than cotton candy dissolving on your tongue.
The virus, code name: Snowflake got into the wrong hands and those are the wrong hands. The mystery ensues, the chases follow and we learn a super-villan, Brixton (Idris Elba) is wanting it in his hands. Enter agent M16 played by Vanessa Kirby who is also seeking it plus an antidote just in case needed. You know where this is going. Let me tell you that as many times the agent gets banged up her make-up and hair is still worth modeling.
Elba always has conveniently placed motorcycles at his disposal and for insurance purposes none of the cars were injured. There is even a scene where Hobbs aka The Rock flexes his Hercules muscles to play tug -a-war with hooked-up cars powered by a supped-up wrecker driven by Hobbs (Statham). The film travels world wide and parks in Hawaii so the camera can show off some of this beautiful world in which we all reside in. It shifts to a slower gear when it comes family time with Hobbs. And even though Hobbs & Shaw act like 2 immature kids they pair up well with their characters. This is a popcorn flick that cost 200 million to make but will race to the finish with much more even after competing with the upcoming film The Art of Racing in the Rain. It opens in theaters July 31.
