The Fast and Furious series began with a souped-up, street-racing B-movie that metastasised into a behemoth Mission: Impossible style franchise with explosive FX set pieces that defied the laws of physics and drama alike. A recent outing strapped a rocket on to a car and shot key cast members into space; this 10th chapter sends what looks like a miniature Death Star crashing through the streets of Rome to blow up the Vatican. Hey ho.
Old enemies become friends (and vice versa) and scenic locations (London, Portugal, Antarctica) are whistlestopped, while familiar faces (living and dead) get crowd-pleasing cameos and everything smashes into everything else. At one point a car jumps out of an aeroplane and hits the road running, only to take flight once more thanks to some exploding helicopters, before later turning into a submarine. Disbelief is not so much suspended as detonated.
On the human front, Vin Diesel delivers endless gravelly speeches about “fambly”, Michelle Rodriguez reminds us that she’s more than a match for any muscle-bound man, and Jason Momoa camps it up entertainingly as a ballet-obsessed villain of no fixed hairstyle. Strap in; there’s more of this overcranked finale nonsense on the way.
