The juggernaut series, including its latest instalment F9, powers on in the slipstream of full-throttle classics from Thunder Road and The Italian Job to Bullitt and Mad Max
It’s funny to think it’s been 20 years since the release of the first film in the Fast & Furious franchise – then just called The Fast and the Furious (Amazon), free of numerals, though embellished with now-quaint definite articles. Back then it seemed about as disposable a pleasure as any: a dumb, flashy, fluorescently shot update of the hot rod B-films of the 1950s, more a faintly retro novelty than anything else.
The films have since swollen pretty much beyond recognition, taking on ever bigger stars, ever loopier high concepts and ever more souped-up vehicles. Sometimes, as in 2011’s sleek, snazzy Fast Five (Amazon), the engine fires on all cylinders. Last time, in the overlong, overpumped The Fate of the Furious (2017; Apple TV), you could sense the series spinning its wheels. Now out on DVD/Blu-ray and non-premium VOD, F9 falls somewhere in the middle. It’s not as streamlined as its title might suggest; running to two-and-a-half hours, and departing so far from the franchise’s original turf as to send cars into space, it’s a big, silly flexing exercise, but executed with just enough tacky panache to be fun.