I had never seen something quite as incredible being 11 years old at the time; the insane cars, action sequences, the racing scene, ridiculously unrealistic stunts and of course, the two protagonists who in the grand scheme of things, were actually the bad guys. I absolutely loved it and have watched the film well over 20 times since.

Remembering the seven

Over the sixteen years since the original, we’re at number eight, but let’s have a look back at the previous movies first. As someone who has always wanted a commercially successful, purely car-based film, I feel that the entire franchise has been on a steady downward slope since the first instalment I suppose 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious and its short-film prequel, Turbo-Charged Prelude (2003), were still in essence about cars, but both lacked some of the magic from the first film while also featuring some pretty awful CGI-fuelled street racing scenes.

Granted, I will admit that the first also featured some strange CGI effects, but to a lesser degree while still providing some of the most iconic automotive moments in cinematic history.

Then in 2006 the rather confusing Fast and Furious:Tokyo Drift was released; a film that despite being third in the series, actually takes place between the sixth and seventh in terms of its storyline and character development. Tokyo Drift was about racing and is arguably the most petrolhead-friendly instalment, but for me, it just came across as a random insert within the series, despite the Vin Diesel cameo in the closing sequence.

Some three years later, audiences flocked to see Fast and Furious (2009); a film that seemingly ditched its car enthusiast roots for box office glory. The movie placed more emphasis on the strained relationship between Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) and Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), who are forced to work together to stop the bad guy than it did car chases and racing, which was kind of the point of the franchise in the first place.

Following what was a massive disappointment for car enthusiasts, another short film called LosBandoleros (2009), which is aimed at tying up the many loose ends provided by the shaky plot throughout the films, provides a back story to the heist that the crew pulls off in the aforementioned Fast and Furious (2009). The movie execs knew they had struck gold with the recipe of action, a familiar cast of lovable criminals and a smattering of cars every now and then.

That’s why in 2011 we saw Fast Five (2011), which was in my opinion better as it incorporated more of the original’s fl air, but still wasn’t quite the same. The following two films, Fast & Furious 6 (2013) and Furious 7 (2015) were box office gold with the former pushing more of an action angle than the previous film, and the latter being a sombre and rather beautiful farewell to the late Paul Walker, who passed away in a car accident before filming of the seventh movie had finished.

It was the last 15 minutes of the seventh film where I was reminded of why I enjoyed the first, it provided me with a heartfelt nostalgic trip seeing Brian O’Conner enter his first street race in his green Mitsubishi Eclipse.

Number eight

I don’t want to spoil the film for any of the fans out there, so I’ll just give my impression from the pre-screening offered by UIP South Africa.

The fact of the matter is, a 'Fast and Furious'without Paul Walker simply doesn’t feel the same,even if the casting crew tried to incorporate a doppelgangerof sorts in the form of Scott Eastwood.Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham return forthe eighth instalment, while the bad gal is playedby Charlize Theron with Vin Diesel changing sidesfor this one.

If I were to surmise the film, it would be to say that there were some fantastic ideas that haveto do with autonomous cars, a whole new way ofstreet racing and some clever and at times, funnyscripting. But, and this is a big but, the film felt like it wastrying too hard to be everything that fans wanted,while addressing some complaints and also satisfyingfans of the original that may have found thenewer movies unappealing.

This is not to say I found the film to be bad,just not quite what I’m looking for from what issupposed to be a car-based movie franchise. Fansof all the films will love some of the action sequences involving the seemingly invincible protagonists, which are borderline laughablethese days.

There are a few car sequences and some car-candy moments, particularly for muscle car fans. But overall, one gets the sense that the filmand indeed the franchise only use cars to keepup the facade that it is for car lovers, when it’sactually just a regular action film that happensto include a few characters with a background instreet racing