Review: F9 (2021)

 F9 (2021)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, and for language

Score: 4 out of 5

It feels good to be back. After a year of closed theaters, "the movies", as Vin Diesel so memorably and memetically put it in one of the film's latest trailers, are back in business. I'm gonna be honest with you, I think I kinda graded this movie on a curve given how long it's been, but in all honesty, this was the perfect movie to return to the theater with: an action-packed extravaganza that was made for the big screen, preferably in IMAX. It is every trope, cliche, and joke about the Fast and the Furious franchise exaggerated and blown up to poster-size, from the emphasis on "family" to the unbelievable plot twists to the increasingly outrageous stunts that, yes, do ultimate go there this time, and it's all done with a winking smile on its face that knows that this shit is exactly what we came here to see.

And yet, even when stripped of all irony, it still delivered, and it came down, believe it or not, to the little things. These are characters I've grown to love and care about for nine films and counting, and while you can probably rattle off the cliches in the plot on full automatic, it was interesting seeing how the film added new layers to Dominic Toretto that called all the way back to the series' roots. Long stretches of the middle of this film have relatively little action and focus primarily on the characters' interactions, helping to flesh them out by showing them just chilling and letting us hang out with them. A thought that crossed my mind while watching this is that the later Fast and the Furious films are basically what you'd get if you dropped a bunch of dudes from South Central into a James Bond movie and actually took it semi-seriously; it's no coincidence that John Singleton of Boyz n the Hood fame was involved with this series (directing the second film), because this film often has much the same "hangout" feel as a lot of classic '90s hood films. It's why I think they keep sticking around even as other empty-calorie popcorn blockbusters fade into the ether, the manner in which they combine the action of a Universal Orlando stunt show with the character drama of a prime-time soap opera. As ridiculous as this series gets, you always have a feel for the characters, all of them played by actors who know them like the backs of their hands and know how to get the right reactions out of you, and who manage to keep it grounded in some kind of reality and its own internal logic. It's also why I think pro wrestling keeps finding an audience, and why it's not a coincidence that this series has cast multiple wrestlers as its heroes and villains: somewhat different ingredients, but a very similar blend of action and drama that knows exactly what tone to go for.

Speaking of wrestlers, the new face in the cast is John Cena as the villain Jakob Toretto, Dominic and Mia's brother who grew up into a secret agent before going rogue and working for the bad guys. The high-tech superweapon he's trying to steal is little more than another MacGuffin for the real dramatic thrust of the story, which concerns Dominic and Jacob's relationship and the death of their father in a stock car racing accident in 1989 that takes the film back to its street racing roots (even using the '90s Universal logo in the opening credits). Cena's charisma and mic talents from the ring help make him a compelling and complicated bad guy, one who forces Dominic to confront what has been, ever since the first movie, one of the main driving forces behind his character, his relationship with his late father. Sung Kang's Han from the third film also makes a comeback, revealed to have had all manner of secrets this go-round.  As contrived as it might have felt for the film to cook up a ton of backstory for Dominic and Han out of thin air, the film still somehow manages to make it work by giving it its all, making it flow by in such a manner that you're already out of the theater by the time you start questioning plot holes.

Director Justin Lin, a longtime veteran of this franchise, is a big part of why it works so well. He seems to realize just how ridiculous things have gotten here, and fully leans into it in how he shoots the action scenes, going all-in on the miraculous "no one could survive that" moments and "did they just do that?" stunts. Over-the-top action is, after all, the other half of this series' formula, one that Lin helped bake into its DNA, and he makes it all look like a million bucks on screen, finding ways to do things practically when possible and giving the mayhem on screen some real weight behind it that makes your gut believe what you're seeing even if your head is telling you "no way". If the James Bond movies ever decided to go back to the glamorous, gadget-heavy style of the Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan films, Lin would be near the top of my shortlist for directors, because this film is already halfway to the best of those films. What I was saying earlier about dropping a bunch of dudes from South Central into a Bond movie applies just as much here, with emphasis on the Bond half of the equation, right down to the fact that the mechanisms of the villains' evil plans were always secondary to the exotic action scenes that those evil plans created an excuse for. Hell, you know what? I think that's another reason why this franchise has been so successful: because, with the Bond films of the Daniel Craig era going in a more grounded and gritty direction, The Fast and the Furious, of all franchises, has been the closest thing to "classic" Bond that moviegoers have had in a long while.

The Bottom Line

Yeah, it's good. If you've been vaccinated, I highly recommend following Vin Diesel's advice and returning to the multiplex for this one. It's technically not quite the "return of the theaters" given that they've been open for a while, but it's my return, and it was worth the wait.