‘Fate of the Furious’ races along from chase to crash in true Furious fashion

“The Fate of the Furious” (Furious 8) is a wild ride and a mega reunion. Even if you are not a Furious fan but love action films, you won’t want to miss this movie. If you are a sometimes fan, you will enjoy seeing vaguely remembered old characters emerge from any of the seven previous Furious films.

Of course, if you are a true fan, you’ve probably already seen the movie and pieced together the missing parts from past movies — such as “whatever happened to so-and-so?” And, “I thought he/she was dead or in prison.”

What I love about these movies is longer than a Thanksgiving grocery list. Every car chase scene has you stepping on an imaginary gas pedal, gripping the arms of your chair or looking for the rearview mirror to see the villain chasing you. The cars are fabulous muscle machines reminiscent of an era when cars were fast, super sexy and ever changing, and ordinary people eagerly anticipated the annual new car models.

In Furious films there are always new venues for chase scenes, and all crashes increase by a factor of 10 over the last movie in the series. The stunts defy gravity as well as the imagination — in many cases the distinctive stunts help us identify the number of the Furious film. (Remember hijacking fuel tankers in Furious 6? How about “cars don’t fly” in Furious 7? Ah, but apparently they do.)

This film opens in Havana, Cuba, where Dom (Vin Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) are on their honeymoon and plan, more or less, to stay on the island forever. The old Furious team has moved into retirement. There is an early drag race through the streets of Havana that initiates our adrenaline rush. After that it gets a little weird.

Following a mysterious phone call, Dom appears to slip over to the dark side where Charlize Theron reigns and spreads terror as the beautiful and evil Cipher. Flying in her own stealth plane, Cipher has literally managed to stay beyond the radar. In the meantime, Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) gets arrested as he coaches his daughter’s soccer team and is put into an orange jumpsuit and shackles. And who is across the corridor at this maximum security prison but Hobbs’ arch enemy Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), ex-Special Forces assassin and mercenary who was the central villain in Furious 7. Since it is impossible for any prison to successfully hold Hobbs, he is soon sprung along with the hateful Deckard.

The team is called out of retirement by the Black Ops guy who goes by the name Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) and his bungling sidekick Little Nobody (Scott Eastwood). It seems Dom has managed to steal a nuclear device for Cipher, which she plans to use to spread terror across the globe. The globe-trotting — or driving — takes the team to the arctic Barents Sea, where Cipher has armed a dry-docked Russian submarine with the lethal nuclear weapon and plans to set to afloat. The chase scene on the icy plains is incredible as the Furious are chased by the partly submerged submarine.

As with all of the Furious movies, there are a lot of hilarious moments. Tyrese Gibson’s Roman Pearce is a delightful foil to Ludacris Bridges’ Tej Parker, and when the two are together it often produces sidesplitting results. In an early scene, Hobbs’ girls soccer team performs a totally menacing martial arts warm up in front of a wide-eyed visiting team, which will have you rolling in the aisles.

The acting is much as you’d expect — no Oscar performances here since the Academy does not single out awards for the most daring car chase scenes — not since Steve McQueen (“Bullitt”) and Gene Hackman (“The French Connection”).

But the performances are gripping as the plot picks up speed and races along from chase to crash in true Furious fashion.

It is interesting to see a lot of old characters show up from previous Furious movies. To Hobbs’ chagrin, he has to join forces with Deckard to fight the even bigger villains — Cipher and Dom. Luke Evans is back as Deckard’s brother Owen. Kurt Russell is back as Mr. Nobody. It’s a veritable Furious reunion and the audience isn’t complaining. The piece de resistance is an appearance by Helen Mirren as the mother of Deckard and Owen Shaw with some uproarious results. What always works for this crew are the easy relationships and friendly bantering that were even apparent in Furious 1.

This story was originally published May 17, 2017 at 12:02 PM with the headline "‘Fate of the Furious’ races along from chase to crash in true Furious fashion."