The Fate of the Furious

With the more dumbed-down title Fast & Furious 8 outside of North America, this overcrowded franchise continues in its trajectory to provide mindlessly outrageous thrills involving muscly guys, tough girls and loud cars. This episode is marginally more grounded than the high-flying previous instalment, but it's still utterly preposterous. It's also a huge amount of fun, thanks to the snappy cast and far larger than life driving stunts.

We catch up with Dom and Letty (Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez) living in Havana and challenging the locals to some vroom-vroom racing antics. But their happy life is interrupted by the arrival of Cipher (Charlize Theron), a mysterious woman who has something on Dom and lures him to the dark side. To stop Cipher's nefarious plan, Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is brought back into action by Mr Nobody (Kurt Russell) and his rookie colleague Eric (Scott Eastwood), who also draft in Letty and the team (Tyrese Gibson, Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges and Nathalie Emmanuel) before heading off to Berlin. Things don't go so well there, so they bring in hothead nemesis Deckard (Jason Statham) and chase Dom and Cipher to New York and Arctic Russia for even more outrageous vehicular mayhem.

New to the franchise, director F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton) gives the film a gritty edge that sits surprisingly well with a stream of wry comedy running right through every scene. He also kicks off the action from the opening shot, then barely pauses for breath for a odd moment of plot exposition or emotion along the way. This is full-on action entertainment, riotously over-the-top and hilariously enjoyable, even if it's dumb as a post. And the action sequences are jaw-droppingly enormous.

In the meathead roles, Diesel, Johnson and Statham are terrific as always, adding sassy edge and pointless machismo to every scene. Theron is a wonderfully snaky villain, and brings a surprising spark of chemistry to her scenes with Diesel. Gibson and Bridges are still essentially just comic relief, and they're genuinely witty. Emmanuel is fine in the thankless role as the hot tech expert. And Eastwood holds his own as Eric amusingly attempts to fit in.

Along with the tough-guy antics, there's corny emoting and silly sentimentality too, but Gray undercuts it all with spiky humour and likeable camaraderie. It's basically like watching a videogame, as the protagonists dispatch hundreds of faceless goons, indulge in car-chase carnage, bone-crunching fistfights, military assaults and elaborate heists, then emerge miraculously unscathed. This time, the scene-stealer is Helen Mirren, who pops up as a riotously snarky Cockney diva. The only mistake is not putting her behind the wheel. That's something to look forward to.

Watch the trailer for Fast 8: The Fate Of The Furious