Fast & Furious 8

Diese Staffel bewerte ich grundsätzlich im Rahmen des Genres und ohne irgendwelches Nachgrübeln, ich lehne es einfach ab, mich über irgendwelche Logik oder Realität zu unterhalten. Es handelt sich um ein anständiges Actionvergnügen, das einen auf andere Gedanken bringt, und offensichtlich gelingt es immer noch, ein solides Drehbuch zu schreiben, das irgendeine Handlung aufweist, mit jeder Folge eine immer stärkere schauspielerische Besetzung zusammenzusetzen, einen markanten Negativcharakter zu finden, dies in amerikanische klischeehafte Muster über Familie und Freundschaft zu verpacken, einige gelungene Sprüche anzubringen, alles mit sexy Komparsen zu besetzen und natürlich für die Autos möglichst wirkungsvolle Actionszenen zu erdenken. Die Kinos platzen aus den Nähten, in der ersten Vorführungswoche wird der erste Rekord gebrochen, und so kann es auf Dauer gehen. Oder finden sich wenigsten fünf Prozent der Serienfans, die rufen - "wir wollen keine weitere Folge“? Ich denke nicht, dass wir uns schon alle darauf freuen, womit uns Toretto u. Co. in der neunten Folge überraschen. Nun, Hand aufs Herz - die meisten Filme tappen bereits bei der ersten Fortsetzung im Dunkeln, und hier reden wir bereits von Nummer neun. Sollen sich doch alle Realisten und eingeschworenen Filmintellektuellen alle Haare ausraufen, ein Phänomen ist geboren. (18.04.2017)

The Fast and Furious brand isn’t about cars like it used to. It’s not about the races or the smell of burnt tires anymore. Now it’s a brand ensuring high-quality action orgies that may be as dumb as a doorknob, but they have bigger balls than an elephant does. Moreover, they have such a solid casting of action movie actors that I feel like they’ve created a sequel to The Expendables. Personally, I liked Jason Statham the most. He has found himself in his recent roles and he had some amazing lines here. The monstrous actor The Rock comes close second and the entire rest of them follows, including Charlize Theron who was pretty sickening as a villain. (01.10.2017)

Good for me. Surprisingly good, because they probably realized that what they are about to serve to the viewers cannot be sold with a serious face. So they focused more on humor, wisecracks, and irony. And it works. The over-the-top action is interspersed with moments where it is evident that everyone on set is actually having quite a bit of fun. In this eighth installment, they can do whatever they want, so they openly disregard rules, laws of physics, or logic. Vin Diesel, F. Gary Gray, and the whole gang simply received a bunch of money and had a blast like five-year-old boys whose parents built them a race track for the first time and now they can play... maybe Fast and Furious. Yeah, it's nonsense, but this time so sincerely exaggerated that it's impossible not to enjoy. And Jason Statham confirms here that it's a pity Hollywood discovered his comedic talent too late. I had a good time. (15.05.2017)

Being the screenwriter of a billion-dollar franchise must be a bitch. Sniffing cocaine out of the asses of L.A.'s top prostitutes and knowing that no matter how much shit you do on paper, you'll get away with it and someone will actually film it eventually. Don't be fooled by the perfect production glitz because this is Hollywood sludge that lacks even a shred of judgment. I don't mind the overblown action orgy, where stuntmen go all out and everything is tuned by special effects artists who were paid handsomely for their overtime. It bothers me that it flies around the world without anchoring itself in the plot, that so many Deus ex machina enter the plot, and that even the zombie is supposed to be excused by the fact that family is the most important thing. It’s overpriced kitsch that does not caricature the trend set by the fifth film in the series but instead degrades it. (18.07.2017)

It´s really sad when a similar essence of überblockbuster, which would like to rely on long excessive action-packed CGI escapades full of dozens of raining cars or nuclear submarines chasing the most luxurious sport cars on the planet, where perhaps two consecutive sequences cannot do without a Bay-scale explosion, only work during scenes where testosterone sparkles between Rock and Statham, where one or the other takes on the role of babysitter or women team coach, where Charlize and Kurt fully enjoy the guilty pleasure potential of their counterparts, etc. Thanks to making this movie move up to another level in term of everything (I was surprised it could be more absurd), this movie is the better one from the last two movie. But still, it has not found balance between various (what is missing are classic kicking someone´s ass moments which is a shame and it´s hard to believe with this cast) incomprehensible), team work and within the scope of a stylishly exaggerated blockbuster of the five. #family (12.04.2017)