Where I Watched It: In The Family Room on Peacock

English Audio Description?: Yes, Family May Enjoy Audio Description

Family. I’m pretty sure when The Fast and the Furious was a surprise hit in 2001, a sequel was presumed. but we are now on the 10th film in this long running family franchise, and it has grown in size as to be able to maximize the family members on screen. The amount of people in this film is so ridiculous that after the movie ends, and the credits start to list the various family members, when we start to wind down, it uses “with” for three different actors, followed by “and” for three more.

The movie takes place after the events of the 9th film, which introduced John Cena into the franchise as the long lost brother to Dom and his sister. Here, if you haven’t watched any of the previous films, the reward is going to be low, since so many people tie into various parts of other films. There’s even a reference to the short film los Bandeleros, which is loosely a part of the Fast franchise. However, in Alan Ritchson’s initial character introduction, he does do a fairly decent job of summarizing the films in a rather quick way.

The main bad guy here is an enigmatic wildcard looking to torpedo family, because his family was taken from him by Dom in Fast Five. It all comes back around. Jason Momoa has a ton of fun with this role, and easily becomes on of the franchises most memorable villains. However, considering this series keeps converting the villains into friends, and resurrecting the dead, who knows where he’ll be for the 11th film.

The rest of the film takes these characters in new directions, with Dom being focused on fatherhood to Little B (who actually has quite a bit of screentime, and has grown up a lot), while the other franchise regulars all weave in and out as the family needs them. John Cena is back, and working with the family this time, and he’s pretty entertaining. Most of his scenes are with Little B. Jordana Brewster returns sans husband, and has apparently learned how to fight. Mia has never been a fixture of the action scenes before, but Brewster has one sequence where she gets to fight people presumably far more skilled than her.

Michelle Rodriguez seemingly has less screentime, and is attached mostly to Charlize Theron, who is working with team family, even though they haven’t accepted her as family yet. Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, and Nathalie Emanuel all spend their usual time together. I’m honestly not sure what happened to Scott Eastwood, as he was in the film, and he just kinda disappeared. If I don’t see a decapitation, I’m learning in this franchise, they probably survived to return in another film. Brie Larson plays Eastwood’s sister, and daughter of Mr nobody (Kurt Russell is sadly absent, despite the resurrection powers of the franchise), and works for Alan Ritchson who takes over for Mr nobody, and is not a fan of Team Family. Jason Statham makes an appearance, as does Helen mirren, but their screentime is limited. For some reason, Rita Moreno appears as Abuela. I’m going to assume she’s Dom’s abuela. han is still back from the dead, which is a good thing for anyone who stays for the post-credits sequence. There’s a mid-credits cameo, and a post-credits cameo. I’d recommend both if you are a fan.

I like most of the Fast films, with the second being the previous low point before the ninth film. Fast X is better than 9, and about even with 8. The stunts are still absurd, but I think we gave up a long time ago on this franchise making sense. In this film, Dom drives a car out of a plane, without a parachute, lands on two other cars and destroys them, before driving away. Rules do not apply.

But, I was pretty entertained, not just by the action, but by Momoa, who is a breath of fresh air. Considering how action packed this is, with the excessive action and driving, you would think it would be hard to describe, but it isn’t. The audio description here is great, and manages to make sense of the nonsense. If you’re not sure if someone died, it’s probably intentional, since most of these characters have escaped death already before.

I don’t put Fast X against films that aren’t like it, and I don’t think it fails because it isn’t Citizen Kane. I think about other action movies, other Fast movies, and whether or not this is successful and enjoyable. It’s not the best entry in the series, but an improvement from the first, and makes good on the promise to have tons of over the top action sequences. If you generally like these, you will probably like this. If not, this won’t change your mind.

Family: B-