There's nothing wrong with the "Fast and Furious" series that killing off Vin Diesel's character wouldn't cure.
Diesel, who's not one of the four Oscar winners in the insanely huge cast of "Fast X," weighs it down with his monotone delivery and expressionless "acting." But his Dominic Toretto functions as the patriarch of the globe-hopping band of thieves/world-savers at the core, so we're likely stuck with him as long as they keep making them.
"Fast X" — the title, unfortunately, sounds like a super-effective new purgative — is, like its predecessors, packed with frantic car chases and butt-whippings. When I saw the poster, which boasts so many actors' faces that it's hard to tell who's who, I was all set to whine that "Fast X" is trying to do too much. Which it is, but the most entertaining parts of the movie depend entirely on newcomers.
One is Jason Momoa, whose performance is unlike anything you've seen from him. He's Dante, a jokey super-villain who prances around in shorty nightgowns, shimmery blouses and palazzo pants. Momoa's Dante, a Brazilian who wants to avenge his father's death at the hands of Toretto, is delighted by the chaos he causes. The actor seems to have modeled his bright, sing-songy delivery on Bill Murray's brilliant work in "Little Shop of Horrors," and darned if he isn't almost as funny.
Humor is also the key to John Cena's droll performance. He's the muscle whose job it is to transport Toretto's kid (Leo Abelo Perry, also terrific) to safety. Their peripatetic odyssey (the movie is set on at least four continents) incorporates several inventive stunts, but what's best about their scenes is the easy camaraderie between the two. Cena — who debuted in the previous "Furious" — can do no wrong in my book, and his "Fast X" scenes demonstrate that "being great with kid actors" is another of his growing list of on-camera skills.
Those two chunks of "Fast X" could easily be their own movies, and that's the issue with this 10th in the series. The movie is so overpopulated that its creators have to concoct separate story lines for everyone, which feels disjointed and hectic. Just when you're vibing with the goofy rhythm of Cena and Perry's scenes, "Fast X" shifts to Rome for pointless tomfoolery with Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson or to Michelle Rodriguez punching out Charlize Theron (one of the Oscar winners, along with Brie Larson, Helen Mirren and Rita Moreno) in some other country or to weird flashbacks that remind us of Kurt Russell and others who aren't even part of the "Furious" universe anymore.
It's a lot. Fans of the series may chuckle knowingly when a legacy character appears or someone makes an in-joke about the team member played by Scott Eastwood looking like Chris Evans (he really does). But I wonder if even they will remember what Eastwood's character has to do with all of this.
Boldness and bigness have been a part of these movies, going back to "The Fast and the Furious" in 2001, but they used to have a teamwork-makes-the-dream-work core that gets lost in the new one's multiple plots. Maybe this series has finally gotten too fast, too furious.
'Fast X'
**1/2 out of 4 stars
Rated: PG-13 for nonstop violence.
Where: In theaters Friday.
