The Fate of the Furious

Honeymooning in Cuba, our hero Dom (Vin Diesel) falls into the hands of a ruthless terrorist (Charlize Theron) and is forced to turn on his wife (Michelle Rodriguez) and pals (Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, et al.) by abetting her evil plans for world domination. The morphing of the Fast and the Furious gang from drag-racing toughs into a Mission: Impossible-style special ops team is now complete, with Dwayne Johnson, Kurt Russell and Jason Statham along for good measure. The nonstop action is so blatantly implausible that there’s not a second’s worth of genuine excitement in the whole two hours and 16 minutes. Director F. Gary Gray, despite all the incessant mayhem he marshals, fails to conceal the fact that the movie moves at a leaden, excruciating crawl, and runs at least 20 minutes too long. J.L.