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THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS - REVIEW

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The Fast And The Furious franchise got its 8th instalment this year with The Fate Of The Furious , another action-packed, star-studded rollercoaster ride which promised an even bigger scale, crazier set-pieces, a new intimidating villain and some unexpected twists and turns.  The film opens with a street race, something that helped make this franchise popular early on, as Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) makes a point by racing someone in a juiced-up relic that's slowly falling apart. It's corny and completely ridiculous but it's a welcome homage to those films' relatively humble beginnings. This is as sensible as it gets in this movie, believe it or not, as the plot that soon unfolds only gets sillier and sillier. The Fast And The Furious movies have made a point to attempt to jump the shark higher and higher each time and it's somehow paid off with audiences flocking to each new instalment. Series veteran Vin Diesel plays a villain of sorts in this one as ev

THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS - VLOG 18/04/17

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I finally talk about The Furious F8.

FURIOUS 7 - REVIEW

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The Fast & Furious gang are back once again in this 7th (yes, 7th) outing which promises to be bigger and even more ridiculous than the one before. You know, the one with the tank? Well, taking a page out of Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible franchise, Furious 7 sees your tank and raises you parachuting cars. New villain Deckard Shaw (Jason Staham) prepares his revenge against Dom (Vin Diesel) and co while his brother rests in hospital after failing to bring down our heroes in the last movie. Although that's soon reduced to more of a subplot when Kurt Russell shows up to steer the film into a macguffin-filled direction as Dom and the rest are hired to find a kidnapped hacker, then a hard-to-reach sports car and finally a super-powerful computer chip with some clichéd face-recognition technology on it. It's the same old magic tech-heavy plot we've seen a million times and it is just as tedious as it sounds. Then again, it does lead us to some truly wonderful

SPEED RACER - REVIEW

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Here's what is quite probably the most expensive live-action anime film adaptation ever made making it basically Hollywood's biggest risk financially dipping its toe in that genre. Similarly to how the Astro Boy CGI feature lost about 20 million at the box-office, Speed Racer did make money but was ultimately a flop, losing over 25 million. But that doesn't mean anything quality-wise, after all, Blade Runner , The Thing and The Night Of The Hunter were all flops in their day. Speed Racer, however, is no Blade Runner. Right off the bat, you are thrown into a multicoloured CGI world so visually rainbowed that you'd think it was yet another Dr Seuss fairy tale come to life in movie form. The thing basically looks like an even more stylised The Cat In The Hat , with less talking cats and more bouncing cars. Directed by the Wachowski broth-... siblings, of The Matrix trilogy fame, Speed Racer takes a very old anime series and makes it into a full-blown candy-colou

FAST & FURIOUS 6 - VLOG 20/05/13

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FAST & FURIOUS 6 - REVIEW

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With a trailer promising tanks, loads more car-related shenanigans and... planes, Fast & Furious 6 certainly looked like tons of fun. And after genuinely enjoying the high-speed nonsense that was Fast Five , I was definitely looking forward to this one. Following on the "big twist" at the end of Fast Five, Michelle Rodriguez's return, this six-quel presents us with more Dwayne Johnson/Vin Diesel bromance (they don't hate each other this time), a brand new villain played by the usually reliable Luke Evans and a Michelle Rodriguez subplot which would have probably had more impact on me had I even known that her character had died in one of those sequels I failed to catch. Her disappearance is explained away in the most hilariously soap-opera way imaginable: one flashback and, I kid you not, AMNESIA. I can't wait until they introduce Vin Diesel's evil twin! Most of the action this time takes place in Spain and in London and, as relentless as the latt

DEATH RACE 2000 - REVIEW

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What do you get when you cross Mad Max with The Cannonball Run , Wacky Races and Rollerball ? I'll tell you what: the best thing ever! AKA: Death Race 2000 . In the dystopian future of... the year 2000, a super-violent race takes place between nutty drivers in silly costumes and goofy-ass cars during which you're expected to score points through multiple hit-and-runs. It's a cruel, messed-up world where the US President approves of and promotes a mindless, murderous sport, where euthanasia is performed by wheeling patients onto the road and waiting for Sylvester Stallone to run them over in a knife-wielding car and where David Carradine walks around in tight, leather overalls, a mask and a cape under the name Frankenstein. Sorry Grand Theft Auto but you've got nothing on this one. Here's a cult 70's flick which doesn't stop being bonkers from start to finish. It's a cartoon and it knows it, occasionally going off into Wile E. Coyote tange

FAST & FURIOUS 5: RIO HEIST - REVIEW

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Fast Five? Fast & Furious 5? Rio Heist? Screw all the rubbish titles, behold... The ExFastables! Why the sudden surge of "team" movies? The Expendables , A-Team , The Avengers , This... Not that I mind, it's just a bit odd really, isn't it? There's really not much to say about this new fast and furious outing for a franchise which never seems to end or go anywhere in particular. It's a Fast and the Furious movie: dumb, loud, action-packed, muscle-bound, tough-talking, cars smashing, bums-in-your-face, the usual fare basically. Oh sure this being the 5th film it's bigger and sillier than most of its predecessors but thankfully not so much that you can't enjoy it on a one dimensional level. Fast Five is hugely entertaining from start to finish, and I'm saying that as someone who couldn't give a toss about cars or muscles so imagine how much you'll like this if that's totally your deal! The best-of cast includes the Blandmeis