THE MOVIE THEATER — Everything about “The Fate of the Furious” is crazy. It is crazy fun, crazy stupid and just plain crazy.

After the movie, I walked out of the theater smiling, but sometimes I was smiling about how awesome some of the action was and sometimes I was making fun of how ridiculous other parts were.

Ever since “Fast Five” came out, the franchise shifted more into a vigilante outlaw group that goes through great length to stop drug lords or to save the world. To me, that is when this franchise went from being mediocre to being fun action-packed type of movies. We watch them to see awesome cars doing incredible stunts. And “The Fate of the Furious” just stepped it up a notch to pure crazy in this eighth installment.

The plot is simple: Dom, Vin Diesel's character, goes rogue from the group to help a terrorist, played by Charlize Theron, to steal some weapons of mass destruction. His old crew, that includes his wife now, must try to stop him and figure out why he went rogue. Like I said— does the plot really matter anyways with all these cool cars?

Here are the reasons why it's fun and stupid all at the same time.

Why it is crazy fun

Going into any movie in this franchise, you know that the plot and good acting are a second thought to making sure they have the best action scenes involving cars. This movie has some incredible scenes of action that will just entertain you.

I am always in awe of the amount of work that must go into shooting these car chase scenes. “The Fate of the Furious” has one scene in particular that involves more cars than you will find in a large 10-story parking garage. Just watching the choreography and the talent of stunt drivers is fun to watch.

Outside of the crazy stunts are some pretty fun action sequences. One involving a prison escape and one that takes place in an airplane. In fact, I dare say the action that took place when they were not in cars was the most entertaining in the movie.

To me, Jason Statham stole the movie. He had what was probably the most bizarre scenes in the movie and somehow was able to make it fun and entertaining. Statham and Dwayne Johnson had some type of frenemy thing going that is pretty funny at times. They definitely upped the RPMs when it comes to trying to add comedy in this installment.

It is also the darkest film in the franchise so, between that and the comedy, the pacing of the movie is kind of fun in a weird way.

Why it is crazy stupid

So I get the fact that they have to outdo themselves and push the envelope to have things that are new and fresh for the audience, but some stuff in the movie was just so far-fetched and out there that it just had me shaking my head.

If you have seen the trailers, you saw the submarine plowing through the ice to go after the crew. Well, just know that wasn’t even the stupid part. There were like two or three moments during that chase that just made you laugh out loud because of how far-fetched and ridiculous it was. Overall, there are about six to eight moments in the film that are that same way.

Somehow in previous installments, they made things like jumping cars out of an airplane or jumping cars from skyscraper to skyscraper seem more plausible than some of the events that occurred in this film.

Vin Diesel is another guy that made me laugh, but not because he is funny. I think he is a terrible actor — so terrible that all you can do is laugh at his attempt to act. He is also the main focus of the film, so you see plenty of him.

They also brought on Charlize Theron for this installment, which makes sense because she was fantastic in “Mad Max,” but I feel overall, they wasted her character by not letting her do much action in the movie. Kurt Russell was a waste as well because you forget he is even in the movie. Luckily, a surprise cameo by another great actress — who I was shocked to see — did not go to waste.

This movie also has a bunch of plot twist that you can see from a mile away. There is one that you might not see coming, but overall, the movie is pretty predictable. It also has its fair share of plot holes, but once again, I know the plot and acting take second place to the cars and the action.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the best way to describe this movie is like buying one of those giant packages of different fireworks for the Fourth of July. Some of the fireworks are big and they deliver, some are duds and don’t even work, some are the classics like sparklers and flowers, and some you don’t know what to expect. Overall, even with the duds and the boring sparklers, there are moments of awesomeness with some of the giant fireworks and it’s all still fun somehow even though you do it every year.

“The Fate of the Furious” is just like that: It will entertain you in all sorts of ways whether for good or bad. It is definitely not the best movie in the franchise, but for the most part, it does its job and is satisfying. Just be prepared for them to step on the gas for craziness.

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