Movie Review: Does 'Fast X' Get A Perfect X?

HOLLYWOOD, CA — “Fast and Furious” fans, your wait is over. The long-running action franchise returns to the big screen with its latest installment, “Fast X.” And, you guessed it, Vin Diesel returns to the car-chase saga along with original cast members Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang and Ludacris.

Amazingly, the tenth installment also boasts four Oscar winners — Rita Moreno, Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron and Brie Larson — becoming the first film in cinematic history to feature four Academy Award-winning actresses.

Now, that we have piqued your interest, you might also be wondering if “Fast X” deserves a perfect ten score. Ultimately, you will be the best judge, but let us share some of our thoughts — with no spoilers, of course.

Over the years, since the movie franchise’s inception in 2001’s “The Fast and the Furious,” the series has become synonymous with jaw-dropping death-defying car-chase stunts and serious family-centric themes — all while challenging the laws of physics nonsensically. Whether this is good or bad depends on one’s definition of movie escapism. The franchise continues the trend full throttle in "Fast X" to make the new movie more appealingly bombastic than ever before.

This time around, a new foe seething with rage emerges in the form of Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa). Hell-bent on destroying Dominic Toretto (Diesel), his wife Letty (Rodriguez), and their young son (Leo Abelo Perry), he will stop at nothing to settle a long-standing score with Dom.

Fueled by wrath and revenge, Dante warns Dom: “You’re about to learn all about fear… I’m gonna break yours (family). Piece by piece."

Interspersed with film footage from the 2011 “Fast Five,” a flashback sequence shows a drug lord killed on a bridge. No! That’s not Dante. Rather, he happens to be Dante’s dad. Now, we get the gist of Dante’s life-long mission to avenge the death of his father by killing Dom’s son in return.

And so begins the globe-trotting plot charged with an array of gravity-defying feats and explosively exhilarating stunts. Can you imagine Dom driving off two cliffs? Or, how about when he seamlessly drives off the rear of a plane and falls off onto a highway? Better yet, how about when he destroys two helicopters, turning their debris into his shield against the cars chasing him? These are fast times, indeed, in the streets of Rio, Rome and London.

Remember Roman (Gibson) and Tej (Ludacris). Yes, they still banter as always. Then, there’s the fearless Letty (Rodriguez) who will spar with the vixen Cipher (Theron). Other returning cast members will also grace the big screen, including Dom’s brother, Jakob (John Cena), Dom’s grandma (Moreno), Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), and his mom Queenie (Mirren). Last but not least, audiences will also get to meet the newbies Tess (Larson) and Aimes (Alan Ritchson).

Rest assured that car chases abound, and fistfights land their share of blows, too. In the end, what emerges is a movie centered on the paramount importance of family in our lives. But is it necessary to immerse us all in a myriad of platitudes and evocations of stillness to make this point?

That is the crux of the question, and the movie will surely test your patience. Still, the movie enthralls.

See it.

“Fast X” is full of high-octane fun, élan and excitement, notwithstanding the excessive lachrymose tones of sentimentality.