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Anyone still watching this series? If you're not paying attention it would be easy to miss how big this series is. The most recent two parts bought in 1.5 and 1.2 billion respectively. For comparison: of the Marvel movies the only ones to pass those number are the two Avengers movies. There's no DC film in sight at that altitude and the only Star Wars films to have taken that kind of money is The Force Awakens. So this is very arguably the biggest action series of all time. And now that Paul Walker has departed the scene it's also a massive grossing series that has basically no white characters. Which I've not seen mentioned but given all the tedious dialogue about diversity and whatnot in Hollywood it's odd that that seems to have slipped beneath the radar. It feels significant.
And it's almost, sort of, not bad (actually I kind of dig it but I'm too embarrassed to be too effusive... I'm already blushing). It admittedly starts off pretty slowly. Part 1 is a Point Break rip off that takes itself too seriously. Part 2 is a homoerotic classic that tops Top Gun- if you play the drinking game and drink every time it looks like Walker and Gibson are going to kiss then you will not survive to see the end credits. Part 3 is- it's possible I didn't see Part 3...
But then it gets good with Part 4 when it gets really, really stupid with the films based entirely around 3 or 4 incredibly large scale action sequences that for stunts and sheer vehicular destruction kick the recent Mad Max movie into the middle of next week. The dialogue is frequently fantastic. I mean you can't understand it when it's coming out of Vin Diesel (I kind of like the mystery) but when other people are actually working at enunciating it decipherably it's hilariously purple tough guy dialogue of the first order. And at this point it stars much every modern action movie hero going. It's like it's the non geriatric Expendables. Though it does have Kurt Russel and he is as awesome as you would expect him to be.
The only thing I can't really get behind is the very forced and oft repeated theme of the "family". Not the one you're born with. The one you find. It's frequently cringey. Though Diesel is obviously a fan as he transplanted it into the recent xXx film as well.
Anyway at least 2 more confirmed which will bring the tally up to 10. Hopefully there won't be any more after that because I will have to see them- I'm committed at this point- but my enthusiasm is waning. And really the last couple leave you wondering where they can go from here. It's hard to imagine it can get bigger. The last one had a race with a nuclear submarine.
And it's almost, sort of, not bad (actually I kind of dig it but I'm too embarrassed to be too effusive... I'm already blushing). It admittedly starts off pretty slowly. Part 1 is a Point Break rip off that takes itself too seriously. Part 2 is a homoerotic classic that tops Top Gun- if you play the drinking game and drink every time it looks like Walker and Gibson are going to kiss then you will not survive to see the end credits. Part 3 is- it's possible I didn't see Part 3...
But then it gets good with Part 4 when it gets really, really stupid with the films based entirely around 3 or 4 incredibly large scale action sequences that for stunts and sheer vehicular destruction kick the recent Mad Max movie into the middle of next week. The dialogue is frequently fantastic. I mean you can't understand it when it's coming out of Vin Diesel (I kind of like the mystery) but when other people are actually working at enunciating it decipherably it's hilariously purple tough guy dialogue of the first order. And at this point it stars much every modern action movie hero going. It's like it's the non geriatric Expendables. Though it does have Kurt Russel and he is as awesome as you would expect him to be.
The only thing I can't really get behind is the very forced and oft repeated theme of the "family". Not the one you're born with. The one you find. It's frequently cringey. Though Diesel is obviously a fan as he transplanted it into the recent xXx film as well.
Anyway at least 2 more confirmed which will bring the tally up to 10. Hopefully there won't be any more after that because I will have to see them- I'm committed at this point- but my enthusiasm is waning. And really the last couple leave you wondering where they can go from here. It's hard to imagine it can get bigger. The last one had a race with a nuclear submarine.
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