After Eight films in the mothership series, it’s time for a spinoff. Clearly by popular demand and not at all because relationships within the core series have degenerated to the point that two of the bigger egos can’t bear to be on set at the same time, this pairs up Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnston, nemesis in “Fast Five” followed by an ally of the Fasties in 6,7 and Fate), and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham, Han-Murderer in 6, enemy of the Fasties in 7 followed by reluctant team-member-and-baby-rescuer in Fate) for some nonsense involving amped up versions of a virus, an army of biologically-enhanced baddies led by Idris Elba, Deckard’s sister, Hobbs’ extended family, cameos by two reasonably sized stars who have clearly had no editing applied to their improvs, some weird climate conditions on Samoa, dangerous driving and bike riding, explosions and old-fashioned fisticuffs.
This somehow just isn’t quite as much ludicrous fun as the previous entries have been. It might be that the snarky banter between Johnton and Statham is pretty laboured, it might be that the devil-may-care approach to continuity catches up with them (particularly in the final battle where light-and-weather conditions appear to change between shots in ways that are pretty arbitrary), it may be the overstretched running time or shameless sequel-baiting of the offscreen baddy-behind-the-baddy. There are still a couple of compensatory moments (Vanessa Kirkby as Deckard’s sister fits into the testosterone like a glove, albeit one stuck with a notably unconvincing romance with Johnston – and it probably doesn’t pay to think too hard about the differences between her and Statham’s ages and how it varies between present day and flashbacks, and the bond between Johnston and his onscreen daughter is pretty sweet too), but there is a sense that this one is pushing just a tad too hard, to diminishing returns
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