"It's like a cult, but with cars," explains one new character to another in "Fast X," the latest in the long-running "Fast & Furious" franchise, and that's as good an explanation as any. Basically, these are superhero movies in which everyone's superpower is that they can drive extremely fast in a very serious yet nonchalant way. Ten movies in, that's still the basic idea — though, like Vin Diesel's biceps, things just keep getting bigger. "Fast X" has an enormous cast (including four Academy Award winners, two of whom see little screen time but apparently just wanted in on the fun), a plot that sprawls all over the world, and action sequences of the sort that had me scribbling things in my notebook like "Wait, didn't that bomb already go off?" and that leave the viewer thinking that a car turning cartwheels is just a perfectly normal part of the day.
In other words, yes, "Fast X" — and do call it that, not the less-cool "Fast Ten" — is good fun. You don't need to know anything about the plot, but I'll try to tell you anyway: Um, we rewind back 10 years to "Fast Five" (aka The One Where They Steal a Vault And Drive Around With It), where it turns out that the evil dude that died on the bridge had a son named Dante (Jason Momoa, hammy perfection) who shows up in the present day with an excellent array of hairstyles and attitude. (Seriously, somebody get this man-bunned villain his own franchise, immediately. And perhaps a signature line of scrunchies.) He wants to kill Dom Toretto (Diesel), supposedly to avenge his father but mostly because he seems to just like attention. This means that everyone needs to go to various great cities of the world — Rome, London, Rio — and drive really fast.
That's basically it — isn't that enough? Diesel, whose ember-voiced delivery remains leaden but who nonetheless makes Dom an endearing hero, says things like "Without family, you got nothing" a lot, and gives his little son L.B. (Leo Abelo Perry) some driving lessons with the poetic instructions, "Find the line, feel the car and let it fly." (I confess that my favorite thing about Dom is his vast collection of sleeveless shirts with the arms ripped off. I like to picture him in the mornings, selecting a new shirt and then decisively tearing the sleeves off. Does he have a pile of random sleeves somewhere? Is Letty making a quilt out of them?) Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) banter, as they always do. Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and Cipher (Charlize Theron) spar. Jakob (John Cena) adorably shows off his car's cassette deck to L.B. And newbies Tess (Brie Larson, a bit underwhelming) and Aimes (Alan Ritchson, teeth gleaming) explain the franchise to each other. "If it could be done in a car," Aimes says, "they did it."
They did, and they do. Though I'd have preferred "Fast X" to have a little more driving and a little less fighting, and was disappointed to realize that the film's climactic moment is pretty much in the trailer, this movie is good, silly popcorn fun — with a couple of scenes at the end (stay put during the first half of the credits) indicating even better times ahead. Soon, this franchise will be driving off into the sunset — "Fast X" is supposedly the first installment of a final trilogy — so let's enjoy it while we can. "You still drive?" somebody asks a member of the crew at one point. There's only one possible answer: "What do you think?"
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'FAST X'
3 stars (out of 4)
MPA rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of violence and action, language and some suggestive material)
Running time: 2:21
How to watch: In theaters Friday
