Fast X (2023)

If you’re a die-hard fan of the *Fast & Furious* franchise, you’ll probably enjoy *Fast X*. If you’re just a casual viewer, the new film might leave you feeling indifferent. And if you’ve never seen any of the previous movies, *Fast X* isn’t the best place to jump in.

This installment is middling at best—a noticeable step down from the delightfully over-the-top *F9: The Fast Saga*—but it still delivers enough wild stunts and chase scenes that you won’t find anywhere else.

Take Vin Diesel, for example: he drives off not one, but two cliffs—and that’s not even the highlight. The best moment? He drives off the back of an airplane and falls roughly 100 feet onto a highway smack in the middle of a high-speed chase. Then there’s the scene where two helicopters try to yank his car off the road using clamps and ropes, but he pulls off a slick move that causes the helicopters to collide and explode. To top it off, he drags the burning wreckage across the highway, positioning it perfectly so the debris takes out the cars chasing him.

It’s a blast to watch, ticking off the golden rule of action movies: all helicopters must explode within three minutes.

If you’re getting the sense that *Fast X* is a lot of fun, that’s because it really is, for the most part. Jason Momoa brings color to the screen as Dante, the new villain. Cheerful and brimming with self-love to the point he seems ready to hug himself, Dante cracks jokes, chats with corpses, kills hundreds in Rome (don’t ask), and harbors one burning obsession: making Dominic Toretto (Diesel) suffer.

Remember 2011’s *Fast Five*? Probably not. In its standout scene, Dominic and Brian (the late Paul Walker) steal a massive vault and drag it through the streets of Rio de Janeiro in two race cars, smashing everything in their path. *Fast X* cleverly weaves in some of that footage alongside new scenes featuring Dante. Turns out, Dante is the son of the vault’s original owner and has been nursing a grudge for over a decade.

It’s good the villain has a solid motivation, but it would be better if the hero did too. Unfortunately, *Fast X* has Dominic mostly trying to hold the line, protecting his wife (Michelle Rodriguez) and young son (Leo Abelo Perry) from Dante’s deadly plans. Needless to say, Dom isn’t his usual carefree self this time — and honestly, even James Bond wouldn’t be very fun if his kid were in danger. This takes some of the joy out of the film.

Like always with this franchise, there’s plenty of absurdity—CIA agents and half the criminal underworld are after Dom, yet he still manages to show up at a street race in Rio without anyone noticing. But absurdity has never been a problem here. The best *Fast & Furious* movies don’t take themselves seriously. They pretend to, but we all know it’s a wink-wink, nod-nod situation where everyone’s in on the joke.

Unfortunately, *Fast X* has to deal with a plotline involving the potential murder of a child, forcing it to take itself seriously. This drags the film into the franchise’s weakest territory—its tendency to get overly sentimental—with plenty of speeches and heavy-handed family talk.

On top of that, the ending is frustrating, and the final shot is just plain ridiculous—not in a fun way, but in a baffling one. While none of this erases the excitement of the earlier scenes, it does leave the audience with a disappointing final impression.