THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS:

Granted, this is an unrealistic and ridiculous franchise, but I actually really like the Fast movies.  Well, starting with the fifth one.  The series evolved from street racing into being a vast globe trotting James Bond action adventure starring a vast ensemble culled from every single previous movie.  It’s The Avengers of car racing movies!  I really liked 5 and 6, but 7 was a slight disappointment for me.  The fourth wall breaking over Paul Walker’s death really rubbed me the wrong way and the story and action scenes were just a little less than what came before.

So I came into Eight with reduced expectations.  Fortunately, I was very pleasantly surprised.  I think Eight might actually be my new favorite in the series now.  I thought the idea of Dom turning evil was going to be ridiculous, but it was done a lot better than I’d hoped.  The reason for it happening, which I won’t spoil, was a big surprise and made perfect sense.  Charlize Theron was a great villain.  I really loved the further inclusion of Kurt Russell, whose character is just a delight.

The action scenes were definitely the biggest ever in the series.  There’s one massive set piece involving remote controlled cars that is without a doubt the best thing in all eight movies.  The stakes are also bigger than ever, with the very world at stake.  We’re truly in James Bond territory now!

If you think the previous movies are stupid, this one isn’t going to change your mind.  But if you can enjoy these movies on any level, this is a great one.

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MOST ANTICIPATED SUMMER MOVIES:

It’s summer time!  The hottest movies of the year!  Here’s what I’m looking forward to the most:

  1. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2: love the first one, and the word of mouth on this one is positive glowing. I am slightly concerned about how interesting the villain and story will be this time around, though.
  2. ALIEN COVENANT: I love Prometheus and the franchise in general, so I’m dying to see Ridley Scott’s next stab at the story. I am disappointed that it sounds like they’re mostly ignoring Prometheus, though. I was really dying to see Shaw and David traveling to the Engineer Homeworld and finding some answers!
  3. WONDER WOMAN: The trailer has been surprisingly coy on what the story is about so I feel this is a bit of an unknown quantity. But I’m sure it’s going to be spectacular.
  4. VALERIAN: I don’t know the comic, but I know Luc Besson and the Fifth Element is one of my all time favorite movies. The trailers look to be an incredible explosion of color and imagination. This looks like the next Jupiter Ascending for me (that’s a compliment, not an insult).
  5. PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 5: I truly love the first two movies. 3 was a slightly disappointing conclusion. 4 was a lot more of a let down.  It just didn’t interest me.  The trailers for this one look great though; Salazar looks like a wonderful villain and I love seeing a more proper return to supernatural villains.
  6. SPIDER-MAN: It’s a little hard to get excited about the third Spider-Man franchise in a decade, but it looks like this time they’re finally going to get it right. I’m looking forward to Michael Keaton as the Vulture. And the Iron Man crossover is the biggest selling point for me.
  7. WAR PLANET APES: the first one was more of a small character piece, but the second movie was an astonishingly tragic and 100% realistic looking war movie with CGI apes. I have high hopes for this.
  8. THE MUMMY: I really love the 1999 version and the 1930s setting. The modern setting is a little disappointing, but I generally love Tom Cruise movies, and I’m particularly excited that this is the beginning of a Universal Monster crossover franchise.
  9. DUNKIRK: The Miracle of Dunkirk is one of the greatest stories of WWII, and seeing it done by Christopher Nolan is going to be incredible. This should be the best war movie since Saving Private Ryan.
  10. TRANSFORMERS 5: I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I actually love the first three TF movies. They’re loud and dumb but they look amazing! The fourth one was a disappointment though, jettisoning all the interesting story elements and characters and going much darker.  But worst of all, they promised us robot dinosaurs and they’re only in the last fifteen minutes!  So my enthusiasm for this one is greatly dampened, but I’m sure it’ll look great if nothing else.