Shifting into Tenth Gear: Fast X (2023) Review

Director: Louis Leterrier 

Notable Cast: (deep breath) Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, John Cena, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Jason Momoa, Scott Eastwood, Daniela Melchior, Alan Ritchson, Helen Mirren, Brie Larson, Jason Statham, Charlize Theron, Rita Moreno, Joaquim de Almeida, Leo A. Perry

 

Every two to three years I get the pleasure of revisiting the Fast & Furious franchise and, in a rather unfortunate manner, the last couple of films in the series - not counting the surprisingly fun spin-off Hobbs & Shaw, have been declining returns in creativity and quality. Not that Fate of the Furious or F9: The Fast Saga don’t have their strengths or their fans, but compared to the first of the fifth, sixth, and seventh films, they just were missing that special heart that beat underneath the illogical scripts and outlandish action set pieces. 

 

Thus, my expectations were metered when Fast X, the tenth entry into this billion-dollar grossing action blockbuster series, was finally on track to vroom vroom its way into theaters. Could Vin Diesel and company find a way to start their own Avengers: Endgame with this reportedly first of two (or three?) “final” films in the series?

 

F9 (2021)

Director: Justin Lin

Notable Cast: Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, John Cena, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Sung Kang, Nathalie Emmanuel, Thue Ested Rasmussen, Charlize Theron, Helen Mirren, Anna Sawai, Kurt Russell, Lucas Black, Shad Moss

Also known as: F9: The Fast Saga

 

While one could argue the diminishing returns in quality of the Fast & Furious & Franchise continues to plague newer entries, there is something special in how much F9 tries to rectify so much of the misfiring that happened in Fate of the Furious. Even the soap opera-inspired long-lost brother plot or the return of Han (Justice is served, nerds) are addressed in a way that says "we know, we botched a lot of the family stuff in the last one, but we're trying harder now." The intent is amicable, if not flawed in its own right. 

Pitch Black (2000)

Director: David Twohy

Notable Cast: Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Keith David, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Claudia Black, Rhiana Griffith, John Moore, Simon Burke

 

Vin Diesel’s career has certainly had its ups and downs and, quite frankly, most of his key franchises feel like roller coasters of quality as they careen around attempting to find their footing. One of those happens to be the Riddick series which saw itself soar so high, the sun melted its wings, and it quickly crashed to the ground to become a passion project series for the divisive actor. It’s origins in Pitch Black, the little-film-that-could, are still impressive though. It’s a tight, ambitious, and effective piece of science fiction horror that still holds up. The latest 4K release of the film, courtesy of our friends at Arrow Video, is a welcome upgrade to the previous Blu Ray in my collection that sports not only a slew of the various original and new features, but a gorgeous transfer that maximizes one of the key aspects of its visual style.

 

Bloodshot (2020)

Director: David S.F. Wilson

Notable Cast: Vin Diesel, Eiza Gonzalez, Guy Pearce, Lamorne Morris, Toby Kebbell, Sam Heughan, Johannes Haukur Johannesson, Alex Hernandez, Talulah Riley, Siddharth Dhananjay

The fact that Vin Diesel is the main draw for me is not something I regularly admit. However, I have had to come to terms with it over the last few years as he continually unleashes A-budget B-films in between Fast & Furious sequels. The results of these weird genre films is wildly hit or miss. Not just hit or miss in terms of good and bad, but some hit every level between. Babylon AD is trash, but Riddick is badass. XXX: The Return of Xander Cage is batshit insane wink-wink, but The Last Witch Hunter is…well, also batshit insane just not wink-wink. Regardless, I’m a sucker for whatever wild shit he’s throwing down and his latest, Bloodshot – based on the Valiant comic book, is just one more for the books. The problem with this latest one is that, despite some valiant efforts to give Vin Diesel fans all of the Vin Diesel-isms they want, it’s a film that parallels the character arc of its hero. It lacks a real identity and it’s desperately trying to find one.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Director: James Gunn

Notable Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Michael Rooker, Kurt Russell, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan, Sean Gunn, Sylvester Stallone

After the disappointing leap into the mystic and psychedelic realms of Marvel with last year’s uninspired (but still fun) run at Doctor Strange, it is a much needed boost for my moral for this shared cinematic universe to be returning to James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy for Vol. 2. Initial reviews and reports seemed generally favorable, but with my sheer delight in the Ice Pirates-esque humor, heart, and spectacle of the film first film I was ready for whatever this film was going to throw at me. Truthfully, it throws A LOT at the audience too. Not only does this film attempt to rekindle the kind of action, drama, and silliness that made the first one a sleeper hit for Marvel, but it also goes by it in the classic blockbuster sequel approach: more is more. More jokes, more drama, more plots, and more characters. It even adds in more than that. It runs with the psychedelic nature that Doctor Strange used and gives it grounding, being bombastic in its designs and color schemes all the while delivering the fun movie that people want to see. The execution is not quite as efficient as the original Guardians was, but for a sequel that was attempting to find the same balance and figure out why the original one worked so well, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is still a major Marvel success and one that pushes the franchise within the franchise into new territory while still retaining its core.

Fate of the Furious, The (2017)

Director: F. Gary Gray

Notable Cast: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, Scott Eastwood, Nathalie Emmanuel, Kurt Russell, Charlize Theron, Helen Mirren

There are now eight films in the Fast & Furious franchise so I’m not sure a review of the latest entry, The Fate of the Furious, is going to convince people one way or the other to enjoy what it must offer. At this point, either you buy into the entire concept or you don’t. The way that this franchise has embraced its own ridiculousness is kind of brilliant. I’ve said this before about the various sequels that I’ve reviewed for the site and for Fate (which I will refer to as F8 as an example of how it embraces its own outrageousness) is no different. In fact, it might even double down on giving its audience what it wants: over the top characters doing over the top things in over the top situations while blowing up things in over the top manners. In the whole, while I think F8 is not nearly as balanced as the previous handful of outings since the franchise shifted into full on action spectacle, it is a film that once again fires on all cylinders to entertain. Do we really need more than that?

xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017)

Director: DJ Caruso

Notable Cast: Vin Diesel, Donnie Yen, Deepika Padukone, Kris Wu, Ruby Rose, Tony Jaa, Nina Dobrev, Toni Collette, Samuel L Jackson, Nicky Jam, Rory McCann, Michael Bisping, Ariadna Gutierrez, Hermione Corfield, Tony Gonzalez, Neymar Jr.

Fifteen years is a long time. In the grand spectrum of things it’s not a super long time, but for a franchise like xXx, it’s long enough to create a James Bond meets X-games knock off, lose your key star who refuses to return, try and replace him in an inferior sequel, die, become a footnote in the history of the action films, allow said original star to revitalize two of his other franchises, and then recruit a series of new talent and the original star back for a surprise third entry. A third entry that, in all seriousness, is easily the best of the franchise. “How can this be,” you ask. “How can xXx: Return of Xander Cage exist?” Considering that Vin Diesel has elevated two of his other franchises (The Fast and the Furious and Riddick) from the bowels of hell, is it that odd? What does make it odd is that Return of Xander Cage is so much fun. While the first two entries have their merits as B-movie entertainment, they leave a lot to be desired, but Vin Diesel has learned a lot from the re-emergence of his other two franchises and takes those lessons to heart for this third entry. It’s not as good as either of those series, just in principal it lacks a sense of grounded seriousness, but Return of Xander Cage is outrageously entertaining. What can I say except that, despite some very distinct eye rolling at the first third of the film, I had a blast.