Fast X doesn’t reach the spaced-out heights of its predecessor as it revs up for a victory lap to come

Review: To be absolutely frank, Fast X does not quite hold up as a stand-alone movie in its own right, and it’s not as good as other Fast & Furious films.

Vin Diesel and Daniela Melchior duck for cover in Fast X.

Fast X (M)

Director: Louis Leterrier (The Transporter)

Starring: Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jason Momoa, John Cena, Charlize Theron

***

First lap of the last race

With today’s release of Fast X, the tyre-shrieking, speed-freaking movie machine that is Fast & Furious commences its penultimate lap of the box-office circuit.

For more than 20 years now, the frenzied fuelling around of driving dynamo Dom Toretto and an ever-expanding army of wheeled warriors – you can call ’em “family” if you are so inclined – has mobilised and magnetised a massive global following.

Members of the Fast & Furious fraternity are both more loyal and more forgiving than any other franchise fanbase in movie history.

Therefore Fast X is, above all else, an exercise in rewarding fans with exactly what they want from the first instalment of a two-part grand finale.

That means as many previous participants as possible will be rounded up and stuffed into the movie, even if there is not quite enough room for them all.

It also means, just like with the Avengers, Harry Potter and so many other franchises doing the two-part conclusion, proceedings in Fast X are to certain end on an ultra-climactic, cliffhanger note that will hold until the last movie drops in mid-2025.

In the interests of keeping all spoiler-ish intel to a minimum, let’s stay right away from the finer details of the main plot and instead focus on the big question F&F fans have been asking themselves for almost two years. How can the filmmakers possibly top that insane moment in Fast & Furious 9 where two members of Team Toretto drove a street sedan around in space?

Vin Diesel is back as Dom Toretto in Fast X, directed by Louis Leterrier.

The quick and honest answer is it cannot be topped. Nevertheless, the first big action sequence of Fast X is hardly a let-down, as Dom (Vin Diesel), Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and the rest of the team speed through the streets of Rome alongside a big round bomb rolling towards the Vatican.

The eventual outcome of this international incident sees the Toretto gang classified as wanted terrorists, and subsequently split up into smaller factions scattered across Europe, South America and, umm, Antarctica.

The only crucial continent-hopping of note concerns Dom’s surprise visit to Rio de Janeiro, where he comes face-to-face with a gentleman destined to go down as the most dangerous, deranged and oddly camp villain in F&F folklore. His name is Dante Reyes, he is played spectacularly well by Jason Momoa, and he is just about the best thing about Fast X.

Dante has a beef with Dom for killing his drug-lord dad many years ago, and would now like to repay the favour by executing Dom’s nearest and dearest ASAP.

To be absolutely frank, Fast X does not quite hold up as a stand-alone movie in its own right.

You need to have some grounding in the motorised mythology of earlier episodes to understand why past players such as Deckard (Jason Statham), Cipher (Charlize Theron) and Jakob (John Cena) are back in the game for no apparent reason.

However, when viewed as the movie that will rev up everyone’s engines for the victory lap to come, Fast X will do just nicely.

Fast X is in cinemas now

Hypnotic (M)

***

General release

A mostly-OK mash-up of Inception, Memento and other mind-bending, high-concept thrillers of yesteryear.

Ben Affleck gives a subtly powerful performance in the high-concept thriller, Hypnotic.

Don’t expect too much, and you might just find yourself pleasantly surprised and deceptively engrossed.

Ben Affleck stars as Danny Rourke, a veteran police detective understandably devastated by the unsolved disappearance of his daughter some years ago.

Out of nowhere, a darkly disturbing new lead comes to light. According to a sketchy psychic (Alice Braga) who has made Danny’s acquaintance, a long chain of seemingly unlinked crimes of the past could be the work of a high-level “hypnotic”.

Such people deploy a powerful form of mind control that not only compel others to commit acts of evil, but also tear at the fabric of time, memory and physics. Though the movie initially lacks the strength needed to carry its own weighty ideas, it does bulk up noticeably in its middle stretches once its main villain is revealed and the subtle power of Affleck’s nuanced performance kicks in.

The Mother (MA15+)

** 1/2

Now streaming on Netflix

Take Jennifer Lopez out of this stilted and inconsistent action pic and it would bore the pants off anyone unlucky enough to clap eyes on it. J-Lo plays the title character, a former sniper of great repute forced to live off the grid forevermore after taking the wrong job at the right time.

A kick-ass Jennifer Lopez is the best thing about The Mother. Picture: Doane Gregory/Netflix

A big shift to the boondocks of Alaska also meant parting ways with a baby daughter she never got to know. Fast-forward 12-or-so years later and the pair is reunited, albeit in highly stressful and unlikely circumstances.

Let’s just say a bunch of heavily armed bad guys are on their way to interrupt the reunion, and the kid needs to be upskilled in the art of self-defence very, very quickly indeed. Lopez and her young co-star Lucy Paez share a spark that has you buying into their developing bond. Almost everybody else involved is here for the easy payday.

Originally published as Fast X doesn’t reach the spaced-out heights of its predecessor as it revs up for a victory lap to come