WHEN I think about the movies I would put into time capsules or shoot into space for other civilizations to discover, they tend to fall into two categories.
In the first belong films of such peerless cinematic value that I'd want to preserve them as gifts for future generations, or offer them up as the best art human society is capable of producing. The second serve as a sort of shorthand: Rather than explaining the national mood at a given moment, I could just give extraterrestrials or future Americans a DVD or a stream and save us all a lot of time and confusion.
"The Fate of the Furious" -- the latest installment in what I guess is still nominally a franchise about muscle cars, family and the butts of the women who drop starter flags at car races -- is such a movie.
"The Fate of the Furious" is, quite literally, about how the Deep State, represented by chipper black-site operator Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) and the car-racing team assembled by Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), saves the world from Russian nuclear weapons. The launch codes for those nukes have fallen into the hands of a hacker who goes by Cipher (Charlize Theron) -- she's sort of like Julian Assange, except you know she's really evil because she's a white woman with dreadlocks -- who in the movie's best action sequence hijacks a bunch of cars through their Global Positioning Systems and sends them stampeding through the streets of New York like a bunch of cattle.
It's a film in which women of color (Nathalie Emmanuel) can be computer experts; female love interests (Michelle Rodriguez) can be relatively butch gear heads without being seen as unsexed or undesirable; black nerds (Ludacris) get to drive tanks; everyone rips on Scott Eastwood, playing the latest and increasingly unnecessary white dude in the franchise; Dwanye Johnson and Jason Statham have such great will-they-or-won't-they chemistry that at one point in my notes, it just says "Kiss!!!!"; Johnson coaches girls' soccer; Statham saves a baby by means of a lot of creative and efficient murders; and Helen Mirren swears and drinks tea.
The movie is a weird and timely jumble of American anxieties about foreign policy and technology, conversations about race, nepotism and mediocre white dudes, and cultural aspirations around diversity. Which is not to say "The Fate of the Furious" is terribly good, per se.
Repeating "family" a lot is not a substitute for character development, and "The Fate and the Furious" can be frustratingly inconsistent on this score.
It makes perfect sense that Dom and his wife, Letty (Rodriguez), would go to Cuba so they could spend their honeymoon ogling that country's classic cars, but the movie handles Letty's desire to have a baby in a way that's emotionally bizarre even by the standards of a film that mixes up a car chase with a nuclear-armed submarine.
And for a movie that's cast some of the greatest brawlers currently punching it up on screen, "The Fate of the Furious" chops up its action sequences with so many quick cuts that it can be hard to tell what's just happened, much less to luxuriate in whatever magnificent, ludicrous mayhem Johnson and Statham have just perpetrated. The defining trait of the "Fast and Furious" movies at this point is their utter ridiculousness. If you're in the business of, say, jumping cars through skyscrapers, you should at least give the audience time to appreciate the absurdity of it all:
The movie also floats, but doesn't develop, the idea of a hacker duel between Cypher and Ramsey (Emmanuel) as a kind of feminized action sequence, all dancing fingers gliding over slick keyboards. It's probably for the best that "The Fate of the Furious" doesn't try to explain what's going on as the two women stalk around each other through the twists and turns of code: explaining anything this franchise does is deadly. But it's a reminder that just as "The Fate of the Furious" has a number of elements that could make for dandy spinoffs, it's got missed opportunities as well.
The truth is that even if "The Fate of the Furious" isn't the best version of the thing it's trying to be, or a deep meditation on the insane year it so aptly represents, that's OK. When the world is this stupid and maddening, sometimes it's fun to ogle men's well-muscled arms and the slick cars they drive with them, and to revel in a kind of dumbness that harms no one.
And if writer Chris Morgan and director F. Gary Gray haven't sorted out the weird stew of politics and ideas that populate their movie, well, neither has anyone else. We'll have to hope the recipients of our cinematic time capsule are actually around to see how it all turned out.
Reuters
Fri Apr 14 2017
Tyrese Gibson, Chris Bridges, Scott Eastwood, Dwayne Johnson, Nathalie Emmanuel and Michelle Rodriguez in "The Fate of the Furious." : Photo by Matt Kennedy, Universal Pictures
Freedom Flotilla to Gaza: Guinea-Bissau akur kepada Israel, tidak beri kebenaran guna bendera bagi misi pelayaran
Kerajaan Republik Guinea-Bissau dilaporkan tunduk dan akur kepada gesaan Israel untuk tidak membenarkan misi pelayaran Break The Siege: Freedom Flotilla to Gaza menggunakan bendera mereka.
Penyakit berkaitan haba dikhuatiri meningkat di Gaza
Penularan penyakit berkaitan haba panas menjadi kebimbangan terbaharu di Gaza selepas suhu luar jangka melampau melanda wilayah itu setiap hari. Ia sudah semestinya diburukkan lagi dengan kekurangan air bersih dan ketiadaan sistem pembuangan sisa pepejal yang sepatutnya wujud di sesebuah kawasan didiami manusia.
Ilhan Omar melawat peserta tunjuk perasaan
Wakil Dewan Perwakilan Amerika Syarikat (AS) Ilhan Omar mengadakan lawatan di kampus penyokong Pro Palestin di Universiti Columbia New York pada Khamis.
Dua lelaki didakwa jadi 'tali barut' kepada China
Dua lelaki yang mana salah seorangnya pernah bertugas di Parlimen United Kingdom (UK) enjalani proses perbicaraan di mahkamah London pada Jumaat selepas didakwa menjadi tali barut menyalurkan maklumat sulit kerajaan kepada negara tembok besar itu.
Polis serbu pejabat 'Save the Children' di Guatemala
Polis Guatemala melakukan serbuan mengejut ke atas pejabat-pejabat Pertubuhan Save the Children di pelbagai lokasi di negara itu. Ia bagi mencari bukti dakwaan pertubuhan yang memperjuangkan kebajikan kanak-kanak itu, terlibat dalam jenayah penderaan terhadap golongan itu.
LIMA '25 dianjurkan pada 20-24 Mei tahun depan
Pameran Maritim dan Aeroangkasa Antarabangsa Langkawi 2025 (LlMA ‘25) akan dianjurkan pada 20 hingga 24 Mei tahun depan bertemakan Innovate Today, Thrive Tomorrow.
Malaysia komited tingkat hubungan dua hala bersama Libya
Malaysia terus komited mempertingkatkan hubungan dua hala yang berterusan bersama Libya demi manfaat bersama dalam pelbagai sektor.
Demi rakyat, Zahid-Muhyiddin henti saman fitnah
Presiden Umno, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi dan Presiden Bersatu, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin bersepakat untuk menamatkan pertikaian peribadi antara mereka.
Sultan Selangor berangkat ke Majlis Bacaan Yassin di Pangkalan TLDM
Sultan Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah yang juga Kepten Yang Dipertua Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia (TLDM) berkenan berangkat ke Pangkalan TLDM Lumut di Perak bagi menghadiri Majlis Bacaan Yasin, Tahlil dan Khutbah Khas sempena Sambutan Hari TLDM ke-90.
PM Anwar pulangkan elaun Pengerusi Khazanah
Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim memaklumkan beliau memulangkan elaun sebagai pengerusi Khazanah Nasional Berhad yang diterimanya dan sekali lagi menegaskan tidak menerima gaji bagi jawatan Perdana Menteri yang disandangnya sejak November 2022.
Harga petrol, diesel kekal bagi tempoh 25 April hingga 1 Mei
Harga itu ditetapkan berdasarkan harga runcit mingguan produk petroleum menggunakan formula Mekanisme Harga Automatik.
Dakwaan subsidi RON95, diesel ditarik dan cukai baharu dilaksana, tidak benar - Fahmi
Dakwaan kononnya kerajaan akan menarik balik subsidi RON95 dan diesel pada tahun ini sepertimana yang tular di media sosial adalah tidak benar, kata Menteri Komunikasi Fahmi Fadzil.
Harga RON97, RON95 dan diesel kekal hingga 24 Jan
Harga runcit petrol RON97 dan RON95 serta diesel masing-masing kekal pada RM3.47, RM2.05 dan RM2.15 seliter bagi tempoh 18 hingga 24 Jan.
KPDN teruskan penguatkuasaan Op Tiris khusus di bawah Akta 613
Op Tiris dilaksanakan KPDN bagi membanteras penyelewengan dan penyeludupan minyak diesel bersubsidi.
Hadkan pembelian diesel subsidi tidak berlaku di seluruh Sabah - Armizan
Permintaan tinggi terutama semasa musim perayaan dan cuti sekolah merupakan antara faktor stesen minyak terbabit terpaksa berbuat demikian.
Bekalan tambahan diesel ke Sarawak dalam tempoh dua hari - Armizan
Petronas Dagangan Berhad sedang melaksanakan penghantaran bekalan tambahan diesel ke Sarawak dalam tempoh dua hari ini susulan terputusnya bekalan bahan api itu di stesen milik Petronas di negeri ini.
Pembekal belum maklum punca ketiadaan diesel di stesen Petronas Sarawak - KPDN
KPDN Sarawak dalam kenyataan berkata mereka masih lagi menunggu kenyataan rasmi daripada pihak Petronas Dagangan Berhad.
Harga petrol, diesel kekal hingga 13 Dis
Harga runcit bagi petrol RON97 dan RON95 serta diesel tidak berubah masing-masing pada RM3.47, RM2.05 dan RM2.15 seliter bagi tempoh 7 hingga 13 Dis.
Harga petrol, diesel kekal hingga 29 Nov
Harga runcit bagi petrol RON97 dan RON95 serta diesel kekal tidak berubah masing-masing pada RM3.47, RM2.05 dan RM2.15 seliter untuk tempoh 23 hingga 29 Nov.
Harga petrol RON97, RON95, diesel kekal hingga 22 Nov
Harga runcit bagi petrol RON97 dan RON95 serta diesel kekal, masing-masing pada RM3.47, RM2.05 dan RM2.15 seliter bagi tempoh 16 Nov hingga 22 Nov ini.