'F9: The Fast Saga' review: Louder and dumber

Courtesy of Universal

There is an undeniable energy that has entranced audiences across the “Fast and Furious” franchise, making these movies popular all over the world. They’re full of big stunts and even bigger machismo, culminating in the newly released “F9: The Fast Saga.” Technically the tenth movie in the series, if you count the 2019 spinoff “Hobbs & Shaw”, “F9” is the most self-aware title of the bunch. These movies threw logic out the window ages ago but this installment finally catches up its core characters to the silliness onscreen and the result makes for a very confusing shrug.

Series anchor Vin Diesel has always claimed that despite incredible car stunts and explosions, these “Fast and Furious” movies have always been about family. His street racing character Dominic Toretto started out as a low-level thief and somehow ended up working for the government, so anything goes in these big, loud movies.

But as the film opens with the classic 1980’s Universal Pictures logo, it quickly becomes apparent that “F9” is going to play things a little differently. Family is front-and-center in the film’s 1989-set prologue, as a young Dominic gets taught a very harsh life lesson. It’s the first sign of trouble for “F9,” since the family flashback is longer than expected and not that engaging. But when the flashbacks keep coming back in weirder places throughout the film, it’s hard not to get antsy and wish for a swift ending.

As the “Fast” series has grown in popularity, so have its surroundings. Its core characters have had secret missions all over the world and bigger actors have come to play in the film’s universe. Helen Mirren, Kurt Russell, Charlize Theron, Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson are among the bigger names but director Justin Lin deserves to be mentioned as well. He’s made five of these so far (3, 4, 5, 6 and now, F9) and his work behind the camera has been instrumental in making these movies pop with ridiculous fun. Characters have narrowly escaped death, and in some cases, genuinely come back from the dead, with flimsy explanations at best. The laws of physics have been broken by doing things no car is actually capable of doing, all in the name of silly entertainment.

In the realm of this “Fast and Furious” universe, all bets are off and that’s the understanding when you step inside. Even when these movies don’t completely work, as is the case with “F9”, their kinetic energy is infectious enough to be forgiving. There are two more of these turbo-charged extravaganzas coming, with other planned spinoffs. In other words, there is still plenty of gas left in the tank.

Grade: B-

“F9: The Fast Saga” is now playing in theaters nationwide.