Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (4 Stars)

I finally got round to buying "Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3" on Blu-ray, after almost two years. I've been waiting for the price to drop, but it didn't, so I weakened and paid 9.99 Euros for it. Usually I don't like to pay more than eight Euros for a film. "Wakanda Forever" is even more expensive, currently 12.50 Euros. It wasn't even reduced in Amazon's Black Friday sale. I'll be patient.

I'll repeat what I wrote in my last review. It's a good science fiction film, but it's a poor Marvel adaptation. Whoever the five characters in the picture may be, they're not the same people that we know in the comics. Maybe Groot comes close, but not the others.

The portrayal of Warlock makes me sad. In the comics he was a noble warrior, the only person that Thanos feared, but he's just a clumsy idiot in the film. Mantis is even worse. In the comics she's deeply spiritual, despite having worked as a prostitute in Vietnam. In the films she's stupid. Not naively stupid, just stupid.

I have a suggestion. Let's reboot the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Let's start again from the beginning. New actors, and let's have stories that closely follow what was written in the comics, especially those written by Stan Lee and Roy Thomas. And let's get the costumes right. How many films did we need before Wolverine finally put on his yellow spandex? I just counted. It took him ten films. In "Deadpool & Wolverine" he finally looks right.

I need to give this film yet another chance. The critics call it one of the better Marvel films. Maybe they're right. I need to make an effort to forget the comics when I watch it next time.

Success Rate:  + 1.4

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Thor: Love And Thunder (3½ Stars)

This is the 29th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). I gave it a lukewarm review when I watched it in the cinema last year. Now that I can finally watch it on Blu-ray I wanted to like it, I made a real effort to appreciate it more than last year, but the best I could do was increase the rating by half a star. The film's biggest problem is the main character, Thor himself. He's portrayed as being arrogant and a fool. I can put up with the arrogance. That's something we see at times in the comics. But foolish? Never! He was always a noble God, with or without his arrogance. I can see what Taika Watiti wanted to do as director and co-writer. He wanted to pull Thor down to our level, so we can relate to him better. That's a mistake. He's a God, so there should be a distance between him and the viewer.

But there are also questions about his godhood which remain unanswered in the film. In the comics we read that he's the God of Thunder. That's it. No explanations. He's a God, the same God that the people in northern Europe used to pray to. When Thor was introduced into the MCU the studios were nervous about insulting people, so it was expressly stated (in words spoken by Phil Coulson) that Thor isn't really a God, he's an alien. I'm not happy with that, but in "Love and Thunder" we meet a character called Gorr who claims to be a God killer. So Gorr disagrees with Phil Coulson and says that Thor is a God after all?

It's all a matter of definition. What is a God? Can we make a definition which isn't specific to just one religion? Is a God the person who created the universe? That would exclude Thor. Is a God someone that people pray to? That would include Thor. Is it someone who's immortal? That's a tricky one, because it's conceivable that human medicine can one day promise immortality. Is a God someone who lays down teachings to live by? Maybe, but some religions would call that person a prophet. I don't have an answer. Gorr could evidently tell the difference. For Gorr anyone is a God if he says he's a God and has followers who agree he's a God. That's a very simplistic definition, with obvious problems, but it works for Gorr in the film.

Let's say, for example, that I stood in the street and told people I'm a God (with an article). The first reaction would be that people say I'm mad. But let's get past that. Let's say that people who disagree want to discuss it with me. In order to convince me that I'm not a God, they first have to know what a God is. Many cults begin with a person claiming to be a God and others believing him.

In "Love and Thunder" Jane Foster carries Mjolnir and possesses the power of Thor. She even calls herself Mighty Thor (without an article). Does this make her a God? Maybe not, because the hammer is also killing her. That's one of the things that doesn't make sense in the film. In a book of Norse legends Jane reads that Mjolnir promises health. She's suffering from terminal cancer, so she travels to Tonsberg (New Asgard) in Norway to take the hammer. It gives her the power of Thor on a temporary basis, but it's actually sucking the strength from her body, speeding up her death. Mjolnir should do better. The problem lies with Marvel Studios, in particular Kevin Feige. He wanted to be modern and present a female Thor, but he wasn't brave enough to do it permanently, so he had to kill her off.

There's a passionate kiss between Thor and Mighty Thor. How passionate is the kiss? Are they using tongues? It looks like they aren't. Maybe Gods don't use their tongues. Or maybe Natalie Portman agrees with Kristin Kreuk that it's not professional.

Here's a small feature that was introduced in the previous Thor film, "Ragnarok". There's a play about the events of previous films. In this case Melissa McCarthy is playing Hela. She looks good, but I still prefer Cate Blanchett. Melissa is only pretending to be the God of Death.

How the mighty have fallen! In the comics Thanos claimed to be God (without an article), although he doesn't say this in the films. Nevertheless, he was all powerful. A few years have passed, and now an imitation of his Infinity Gauntlet adorns an ice cream parlour. I wonder if it tastes good. I'll have to try it the next time I'm in Tonsberg.

Success Rate:  + 1.0

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Fast & Furious 10 (5 Stars)

It must sound like a cliché, but I have to say it:

"I expected Fast & Furious 10 to be good, but it was even better".

The action sequences at the beginning made my heart pound, and the excitement continued until the final minutes. The film retells the scene where the bank vault was stolen in "Fast & Furious 5". It's been falsely called a retcon in some reviews. Nothing is changed. What happened happened. We're merely given a few extra scenes, things we didn't see in F&F 5. We see that Hernan Reyes' son Dante was involved in the car chase. Dante Reyes is the main antagonist in F&F 10, seeking revenge for the death of his father. He doesn't just want to kill Dom and his friends, because that would be too merciful. He wants Dom to suffer before he finally dies.

I can't say anything about the plot without giving away spoilers. All I can say is that Jason Momoa is the perfect villain. Other reviews have compared him with DC's Joker. I can see what they mean, but I don't agree. He's more similar with the Riddler, as played by Frank Gorshin and Jim Carrey. Simply put, he's insane. Whatever he does is a game, and he enjoys it to the full.

There's just one spoiler worth telling: the film ends on a cliff-hanger. I can hardly wait for F&F 11 to see how it continues. I'll be queuing up to see it as soon as it hits the cinema.

Fast & Furious 9 (4 Stars)

This is the ninth film in the Fast & Furious series. In America it's called "F9", but "Fast & Furious 9" is the title in the UK. That's what I would have called it anyway, so that it's in the right place in my alphabetical list of posts.

I missed the film when it was shown in the cinema. I'm not sure why. I've owned it on Blu-ray since last year, but I've deliberately delayed watching it until the tenth film is in the cinema. The Blu-ray contains two versions, the theatrical cut and a Director's Cut. I watched the theatrical version today, and I'll watch the other version some time in the future.

The Fast & Furious franchise has to keep stepping up the action from one film to the next. It can't go backwards. In an early scene the cars were being attacked by an army with tanks. I sat looking at it shaking my head. "That's impossible", I told myself. I try to suspend belief, but "F&F 9" goes too far. That must have been obvious to the director/screenwriter, because Roman Pierce addresses his comrades afterwards:

"We've now been on insane missions around the world, doing what most would say is damn impossible, and I ain't got one single scar to show for it? I mean, look at my jacket. There are bullet holes from 14 dudes trying to take my head clean off its shoulders. We've taken out cars, trains, tanks. I'm not gonna even mention the submarine. And yet we're still here. We are not normal".

My thoughts entirely. It's like Roman is becoming meta? He's not a character in the film any more, he's speaking as a viewer. None of the team ever dies. Wait! Wasn't Han killed at the end of "Fast & Furious 6"? Yes, but in this film we find out that his death was faked. Gisele was also killed in "Fast & Furious 6", in a way that couldn't possibly have been faked. Or maybe she'll return in "Fast & Furious 12", telling her teammates that it was a body double. Anything is possible.

But the most outrageous stunt is saved until later in the film. A car is propelled into space, driven by Roman, accompanied by Tej. It has to be Roman. We've already established that he can't die. He rams an enemy satellite to destroy it, but he still survives.

What can "F&F 10" do to top this? Ask me again next week.

Michelle Rodriguez remains on the ground, but she's the film's heavenly body. She seems to be getting more attractive in every film. She's not normal.

Success Rate:  + 1.6

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (3 Stars)

This is the 32nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It's a difficult film for me to rate. It depends on my criteria. As a sci-fi comedy it's a great film, worth five stars. As a Marvel adaptation it's awful. My three star rating is an average of the two extremes, but also a sign that I don't know how to rate it.

Adam Warlock is one of my favourite heroes in the comics, but what's happened to him? Roy Thomas portrayed him as the Messiah of Counter-Earth, but in the film he's a buffoon. And wasn't the High Evolutionary a good guy in the comics? He's been totally distorted in the film.

The members of the Guardians themselves are nothing like their incarnations in the comics, but I've already got used to it, so I won't comment on them here. The only character in the film who's true to the comics is Howard the Duck, but his appearance is so brief that it's hardly worth mentioning. Seth Green isn't even included in the credits.

The critics like the film, which I find curious. "The best Marvel movie in years"? That's only because the last few films have been so bad.

Just one small spoiler: At the end of the film Star-Lord (Peter Quill) leaves the Guardians of the Galaxy, but a few minutes later we read the words "The legendary Star-Lord will return". Does this mean he'll have a solo film?

As always, I'll return to the film when it's released on disc. It deserves another chance.

Fast & Furious 8 (4½ Stars)

This is the eighth film in the Fast & Furious series. The title is silly, whether it's spelt Fate or F8. I hope you approve of my sensible renaming.

The team has two new members in this film. The first is Ramsey, the hacker we met in the seventh film. She was rescued from a Nigerian terrorist, but I didn't expect to see her return in the next film as a team member. Maybe she had nowhere else to go.

There were enough jokes in the last film about her not looking like a hacker, so I won't repeat them here. I'll just say that I agree. She doesn't look like a hacker.

Roman and Tej are vying for her attention. Tej (on the right) says he's the most suitable partner because he's also a computer expert. Roman (on the left) says he's the most suitable partner because of his sex appeal. If he says so.....

The second new member is Deckard Shaw, and his presence in the team is even less expected. In "Fast & Furious 7" he was the team's enemy. I knew he wasn't really a bad guy. He was only taking revenge for his brother. But now his brother has recovered from his injuries, so there's no need for him to work against the team. Apart from that, the mysterious Mr. Nobody got him out of prison on condition that he did a job for him. That job involves taking down an international terrorist called Cipher.

A shocking development in this film is that Dominic Toretto (Dom) turns his back on his team to work for Cipher. It's obvious that she has something she's using against him, but I'm not going to tell you what it is. If you haven't seen the film yet, now's your time.

In the 11-minute pre-credits scene the film returns to its roots. Dom takes part in an illegal street race in the streets of Havana, Cuba.

There's a scene in which we see Luke Hobbs working as a football coach. He's good. He's really good. I wish VfB Stuttgart had a coach like him.

He turns innocent young girls into lean, mean fighting machines.

I'd be scared to play with a girl like this.

This girl scares me even more.

And a girl like this would make me run and hide behind the goalposts.

You can see where they've got it from.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock is the ex-wrestler who's the most talented actor. I feel tempted to say that he's the only ex-wrestler who's a good actor. Most wrestlers are embarrassing when they try to act, but don't tell them I said so. They're tougher than me.

I'm glad that Paul Walker's character, Brian O'Connor, hasn't been written out of the series after his death. It would have been tasteless to hear the team talking about him being killed by an enemy in between the films. He simply isn't there any more, so we can imagine that he's settled down as a happy family man, living a quiet life in a house by the beach. He's had enough of being fast and furious.

Success Rate:  + 2.9

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Fast & Furious 7 (4 Stars)

This film's correct name is "Furious 7", but I've renamed it "Fast & Furious 7". It's annoying when films in a series are given random names. Besides, by giving consistent names the films are easier to find in my alphabetic list of posts. I hope my regular readers use the list a lot. I know I do. Whenever I watch a film that I've watched before, I read my old reviews first, and I use my list to find them.

"Fast & Furious 7" begins shortly after the end of the previous film. It's more accurate to say that it overlaps. The opening scene takes place before the mid-credits scene of "Fast & Furious 6". Deckard Shaw is the brother of Owen Shaw, who was left badly injured and comatose after the last film. Deckard visits Owen in the police hospital, slaughtering everyone who gets in his way. I counted 19 bodies lying scattered in the lobby and hallways as he walked out. He only spared the medical personnel, not the guards. Judging by the mass destruction left in his wake, they need to build a new hospital.

From what I understand, Deckard isn't necessarily a bad guy. He was an elite soldier in the British SBS and SAS. Wow! It's rare that someone serves in both units. He was trained to be a ghost, entering foreign territory undetected to assassinate Britain's enemies. He's a man who can never be found unless he wants to be found. But family comes first. Anyone who harms his brother has to be dealt with.

Deckard visits the DSS offices to find out who was responsible for his brother's injuries. No, he doesn't make an appointment. He breaks into the building at night and logs into the computer of Luke Hobbs to get the information. He doesn't reckon with Hobbs doing overtime. A fight with Hobbs puts him into hospital for most of the film, but he climbs out of bed to go into action in the last half hour.

The first person he kills is Han, as we saw in the mid-credits scene of "Fast & Furious 6". Then he attempts to kill Brian O'Connor by mailing him a bomb. A big bomb. After this his primary target is Dominic Toretto (Dom).

Help comes from unexpected quarters. The leader of a black ops military team who calls himself Mr. Nobody offers Dom his assistance in finding Deckard if Dom does a job for him first. A hacker called Ramsey has written a program called God's Eye that can process data from every device on Earth with a camera or microphone, everything from mobile phones to traffic cameras. Combined with facial recognition software, anybody can be found. A Nigerian terrorist has kidnapped her in Azerbaijan. If Dom frees her and retrieves the hard drive containing God's Eye, Mr. Nobody will assist Dom in finding Deckard Shaw; using God's Eye, of course.

Dom and his team go to work, but it's even more difficult than expected. Deckard is never far away. Dom rescues Ramsey (after an exciting car chase), but Deckard tries to push Dom's car off the road.  Ramsey tells Dom that the hard drive is in Abu Dhabi, but when Dom and his team go to collect it, Deckard is waiting for them.

There's a bittersweet element to the film. The actor Paul Walker, who plays Brian O'Connor, died in a car crash before the film had been completed. The crash was nothing to do with the film itself. The filming continued with slight rewriting. The final scene is a thinly disguised tribute to Paul Walker. Dom says farewell to Brian, and there are flashbacks to the previous films, but it's obvious that he's really saying farewell to Paul. The film is dedicated to him.

Paul Walker
12 September 1973 – 30 November 2013

Success Rate:  + 6.0

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Fast & Furious 6 (5 Stars)

The Fast & Furious films keep getting better as they go along. The action is getting more exciting and more exaggerated. The last 40 minutes of this film are totally over the top. A car chase including a high speed tank? Another car chase on a motorway with a plane trying to take off while it's being attacked by cars? I can't say that these car/tank/plane chases are realistic, but they're exciting beyond words.

At the end of the last film Dominic Toretto, Brian O'Connor and the rest of their gang walked away with $100 million each. Now they've retired from their lives of crime, living comfortably in countries that have no extradition treaty with the USA. Brian is married to Dom's sister Mia, and they have a baby son together. So what can happen to pull them out of retirement?

There's been a series of thefts by criminals using high speed cars. DSS agent Hobbs approaches Dom and asks for his help in catching the criminals. Normally Dom wouldn't agree to help, but Hobbs tells him that his girlfriend Letty, presumed dead until now, is one of the criminal gang. Dom assembles a team to do the job, almost the same team that he worked with in the last film. The two guys are missing who could only speak Spanish. I don't miss them, I've forgotten their names already. Having less characters makes the film tighter and more exciting.

These six are easy to remember: Han, Tej, Gisele, Dom, Brian and Roman.

Hobbs promises a complete pardon to all the team members if they succeed in capturing lhe leader of the criminal gang, a mercenary called Owen Shaw. He's stealing the parts needed to assemble a device that can shut down the power of a whole country for 24 hours. Okay, let's suspend disbelief here. Assuming that such a device exists, why 24 hours? Why not a week or a month or indefinitely? And why are the components scattered at random places around the world, like Moscow, London and Spain? It's hardly feasible, but let's not argue about it. It makes a good story.

Letty was recruited for Shaw's team after losing her memory in the accident that almost killed her. I've never understood memory loss. Is it really possible to simply forget everything after getting knocked on the head?

There's only one car race in the film, a race through the busy streets of London at night. Its inclusion in the film seems artificial. It's a gratuitous car race to satisfy the regular viewers who've grown used to the races since the first film. However, it seems like the franchise is slowly drifting away from the illegal car race scene into standard action films. I'd say that the first four films were car race films, the fifth film was a transition, and the action films begin with the sixth film.

This film is nine years old, but I'll still avoid spoilers. Two members of Dom's team die, so they won't be appearing in the next film. Which two? You probably already know, but I'll keep my mouth shut.

I've already saw the seventh film in the cinema seven years ago, and I still remember how thrilling it was. I need to watch it again soon.

Success Rate:  + 2.9

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Fast & Furious 5 (4½ Stars)

This is the best film in the Fast & Furious franchise so far. I felt tempted to give it five stars, but I expect the upcoming films to be even better, so I'll hold back with my top rating.

The film's official name is "Fast Five". It was made two years after "Fast & Furious 4", but the events begin immediately after the end of the previous film. At the end of the last film we saw Dominic Toretto, nicknamed Dom, being driven to a high security prison. "Fast & Furious 5" begins with Brian O'Connor (still an FBI agent, I presume) and Dom's sister Mia overturning the bus to free him. This puts Brian on the wrong side of the law, so he has to flee. They head to Rio de Janeiro, to the house of Dom's friend Vince, who we saw in the first film. There's animosity between Brian and Vince, because Vince is still annoyed with Brian's actions when he was a policeman.

Vince, Brian, Dom and Mia are hired to do a job stealing three cars from a train. Just their line of work! Dom double-crosses the others, because he knows that there's something special in one of the cars, and he wants it for himself. The job is for Herman Reyes, the biggest crime lord in Rio. He only wants this car, and he's stealing the other cars as well to cover up its importance. There's a computer chip which contains the addresses of the houses where Herman stores the money from his drug deals; ten houses with more than ten million dollars each in cash.

Dom tells the others he wants to steal this money. He calls in another six men from abroad, all specialists in robbery or fast driving. It's an impossible job, a suicidal job, but when so much cash is involved the criminals don't think logically.

As if the job weren't difficult enough already, the DSS (Diplomatic Security Service) sends a team to Rio to arrest Dom and Paul, because they're (wrongly) suspected of having murdered two DEA agents. The team is led by Luke Hobbs, a no-nonsense officer played by Dwayne Johnson. He soon realises that that Dom and Paul aren't the murderers, but he still tries to arrest them, because he believes in doing his job. He teams up with them to take down Herman Reyes, but he makes it clear that it's only a temporary alliance.

The car racing is noticeably missing from this film. There are only two car races in the film, but one of them is strangely skipped. Dom leaves to take part in a race, and then we see him returning home as the winner. Wasn't the budget big enough for another race? But we do see a big car chase (not race) at the end of the film in the streets of Rio de Janeiro. The train robbery is also spectacular. If the budget really was limited, the money was well spent in the scenes that were filmed.

That makes it the most exciting film in the series so far. I can hardly wait to watch the sixth film. In a mid credits scene we find out that Dom's girlfriend Letty, presumed dead in the last film, is still alive. That will probably be the main theme of the next film.

Success Rate:  + 3.0

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Fast & Furious 4 (4 Stars)

As I've said before, the naming of the films in this series is such a mess that I've decided to rename them. The fourth film is officially called "Fast & Furious", which confuses everyone – especially me! – so I've decided to call it "Fast & Furious 4", which makes more sense.

It's supposedly another interquel, between "Fast & Furious 2" and "Fast & Furious 3", but it doesn't really matter. "Fast & Furious 3", officially called  "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift", is so far removed from the continuity of the other films in the series that it could be called a spin-off. In fact, "Fast & Furious 4" has more connecting it with the first film than the second.

The two main characters are FBI agent Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) and the career criminal Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). Brian was an undercover agent for the LAPD, but quit at the end of the first film. In the second film he made money from racing, but he's joined the FBI some time between the second and fourth film. Despite being on opposite sides of the law, Brian and Dom have great respect for one another. Driving fast cars unites people like that.

The paths of the two men come together by chance. Brian is trying to arrest the drug dealer Braga who has been smuggling heroin across the Mexican border. Dom's girlfriend has died in a car accident which he believes was caused by one of Braga's drivers. Braga is looking for a new driver, and he's arranged a car race to find the best driver. Brian and Dom both take part in the race.

As always in the Fast & Furious films, the plot is highly infeasible, but who cares? It's all about the action, i.e. the car races and car crashes. The action is becoming more exaggerated and over-the-top with every passing film.

Success Rate:  + 2.2

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Thor: Love and Thunder (3 Stars)

I'm writing this review with a very heavy heart. I'm a Marvel fan. I always have been. I started reading Marvel comics when I was six and bought the comics regularly until I left university. (After that I moved to Germany, and the comics were less easily available at that time). The Marvel films made in the 1980's and 1990's were disappointing, but in the 2000's high quality, big budget films based on the comics were finally made. "X-Men" was the turning point in 2000, and the films have kept up momentum ever since.

But what's happened now? The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is producing flop after flop. They should have quit while they were ahead. "Avengers Endgame" should have been the last Marvel film, but corporate greed caused Marvel to take more and more risks.

The first three Thor films were good. They weren't perfect, but they were highly enjoyable action romps. So what went wrong with the fourth film, which I saw in the cinema this evening? Too much CGI. Too much humour. Too many characters. Too much humour. Or did I mention the humour already?

I like comedies. Anyone who reads my blog regularly knows that already. But Marvel isn't about comedy. Maybe there can be occasional jokes, but the repeated humour in "Love and Thunder" just got on my nerves. The cinema was packed, and the audience was laughing at the silly little monsters in the early scenes. Most of the audience, that is. I was groaning.

I can't say too much without giving away spoilers. All I'll say for now is that the film is a failure. It's tempted me to never watch another Marvel film.

Fast & Furious 3 (3 Stars)

As you can see from the poster, the correct name for this film is "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift". I've renamed it "Fast & Furious 3", because of the inconsistent names and numbers used in the series.

This film has almost no connection with the previous films. None of the actors from the previous two parts return, apart from Vin Diesel in a brief cameo. Some of the characters return in later films in the series, but I'll discuss them when I get to those films. The only thing that connects this film with the previous films is that it's also about car racing.

Sean Boswell is a 17-year-old high school student who has an obsession with racing. The opening scenes show him having an accident, doing a lot of damage, in an illegal race. It's his third conviction, so it's possible he'll be tried as an adult. Before this can happen, his mother sends him to live with her ex-husband who works for the US Navy in Tokyo.

Sean has to go to a Japanese school. He's out of place, since he doesn't speak a word of Japanese. Aren't there any American schools for him? But he's in luck. An American boy called Twinkie, presumably an army brat, takes him under his wing. More significantly, he introduces Sean to an underground car racing community. Sean has problems from the start. He approaches Neela, a girl he recognises from his school class, but she's the girlfriend of Takashi, the nephew of a Yakuza boss and also a gangster in his own right. Sean is befriended by Han, Takashi's partner in crime, for no apparent reason.

Sean wants to race against the others, but he has to learn the art of drifting. If I understand correctly, this is a driving style in which the car makes turns by rapid breaking, allowing the back wheels to overtake the front wheels.

I'm not sure how to rate this film. The story is awful. It's so infeasible that underage youngsters can be driving around in expensive cars, whether in America or Japan. The only good thing about the film is the spectacular races. The film is weaker than the previous two films, but I'll be generous and give it three stars.

Success Rate:  - 0.1

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Fast & Furious (4 Stars)

This is the film that kicked off the Fast & Furious franchise in 2001. So far there have been nine films in the series, alongside a spin-off film and an animated television series.

There's some confusion with the film titles, which I'll fix by heavy-handedly renaming the films. The actual title of this film is "The Fast and the Furious". Fair enough. But the fourth film in the series is called "Fast & Furious". The names of the other films, which I intend to watch slowly but surely, are also erratic, so I'll simply call this film "Fast & Furious" and number all the others 2 to 9, etc. That will at least put them in the right order in my alphabetical list of posts.

Now to the plot. A series of trucks have been stopped and robbed on the highway near Los Angeles. There's evidence that the culprits used specially modified racing cars. The police send an undercover cop, Brian O'Connor, to infiltrate the illegal racing car scene. He takes part in races on the streets of Los Angeles. Even though he doesn't win the races, he gains the respect of the reigning champion, Dominic Toretto. He also falls in love with Dominic's daughter, which is more of a problem than an advantage.

I admit that there are problems with the film. The character development is thin, to say the least. There are a couple of statements about Brian's past, but we don't know whether they're true or false information as an undercover cop. Dominic is the only well developed character, but we don't find out about him until late in the film.

These deficiencies are made up for by the action. As the title says, it's fast and furious.

Previously I've only watched the seventh film in the series. I recently bought a box set with the first eight films. It was so cheap that I couldn't resist. I'll watch all eight films eventually. I have a lot of other films that I want to watch first. It's not just my top films list, which is rapidly reaching completion. I have other films that I've scheduled for viewing from September onwards.

Success Rate:  + 3.5

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Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (5 Stars)

On 23rd October 2004 the 19-year-old soldier Billy Lynn attempted to save his sergeant's life in Iraq. In the process, he killed an Iraqi terrorist in hand to hand combat. This was filmed, and he became a big hero in America. His unit, nicknamed the Bravo squad, goes on a tour in the USA, culminating in a halftime performance at the Dallas Cowboys football game on Thanksgiving.

Billy, while not actually suffering from PTSD, is in a daze. The stress doesn't come from his tour of Iraq, it comes from his treatment back home. The day when his sergeant died in his arms was the worst day of his life, but everyone talks about it in glowing terms. Everyone asks him about it, but it's a day he wishes he could forget.

Many critics are against the film because it isn't what they expect. They look at the box, and they assume it's an anti-war film. It isn't. It isn't a pro-war film either. The war in Iraq is just the background to the story. What's relevant is the way Billy and his unit are treated in America. Billy doesn't feel like a hero. He just wants to be left alone.

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I already owned the film on Blu-ray, but I rebought it on 4K after watching "Gemini Man". It was worth the money. These are the only two films to have been released with a speed of 60 frames per second. This sets them apart from all other films ever released. The picture quality is amazing. "Gemini Man" profits more from the high frame rate, because most of the picture has bright scenes, but "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" still excels.

If you own a 4K Blu-ray player, you need to buy these two films. They're essential to display the best that 4K can offer. They're the future of films. It will take years for other films to catch up with what these two films offer.

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