There's Too Much Ho-Hum In A Movie Like xXx: Return of Xander Cage That Should Be All Vroom Vroom

He's back. You all thought he was dead but nope, Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) has just been using his extreme sports skills to help poor people in foreign countries get the ability to watch Soccer matches on TV. But it looks like his time off the grid is coming to a close when his former boss, Augustus Eugene Gibbons (Samuel L .Jackson), is killed by a falling a satellite. Jane Marke (Toni Collette) doesn't believe this was an accident, in fact, she knows this was the work of someone tampering with a government device called Pandora's Box, that allows a single person to control any satellite in existence. Obviously, the only way to stop this threat is by making heavy use of Xander Cage's extreme sports skills.

The Fate Of The Furious Takes The Car-Filled Franchise To So-So Territory

Out of the seven Fast & Furious movies that have come before The Fate Of The Furious, I've seen all but two of them, the sole exceptions being 2 Fast 2 Furious and The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift. Otherwise though, I've been able to see the other five entries in this saga and now I've also been privy to The Fate Of The Furious, the eighth installment in the greatest car racing spy heist action franchise in history behind The Apu Trilogy. After three gloriously unhinged action movies in a row, it pains me to say that The Fate Of The Furious goes to more routine and repetitive areas that harken back to the middling first and fourth movies in the series.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk Just Can't Stop Stumbling Over Its Own Feet

If there's one thing director Ang Lee loves, it's ambition. His 2012 mega-hit Life Of Pi was a small-scale movie that mostly confined itself to a boat starring an unknown actor and a CGI tiger while Brokeback Mountain is one of the most high-profile American movies to deal with the typically taboo topic of homosexuality. Even his foray into superhero movies, the 2003 Hulk film, has one of its core plot points revolve around spousal abuse and the effect that has on a young child's psychology. You give Ang Lee a box to play in, he's gonna think outside of it and then some, no question about it.

Furious 7 Review

The Good, The Fast And The Furious

The climax of Furious 7 is pretty much the epitome of this entire franchise with its chaos dialed up to a million, cars zoom by and untold amounts of destruction occur. In the midst of it all though, the characters audiences have come to know and love over the years are never forgotten. All these enormous violence fueled set pieces revolve around their choices and relationships, not the other way around.

The Wheels On The Franchise Go Round And Round; Fast & Furious 7 Gets A Trailer

Similar to the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the most recent entries in the Fast & Furious saga derive much of their success from engaging characters. While I'd easily few, if any, of these protagonists have had an arc comparable to the likes of Tony Stark (I couldn't tell you what the names of characters played by Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson off the top of my head), but like those superheroes, the cast have an excellent chemistry that makes adventures seen in Fast Five and Furious Six super enjoyable.

From The Interwebs: Watch This Beloved Groot Credits Scene From Guardians Of The Galaxy And Make Your Day Instantly Better

SPOILERS AHEAD IN THIS ARTICLE