Fast X

Essential if you are seeing the series out, and it does not end. It was conceived as the first half of a finale and it stops on an unresolved cliffhanger with several characters in mortal danger, which is worth knowing before you start a hundred and forty-one minute film.

The hook is a good one. Jason Momoa plays the son of the Brazilian crime lord whose vault was dragged through Rio in Fast Five, and the film opens by inserting him into that sequence through new footage, so the series' best set piece is reframed as the moment a villain was created. He plays the part as a camp, giggling sadist who paints his nails and talks to corpses, and he is by a distance the most entertaining antagonist the franchise has had.

The production was difficult. Justin Lin left days into shooting over disagreements and Louis Leterrier took over at no notice, and the film has a slightly assembled quality: a very large cast scattered across continents, several subplots that go nowhere, and a resolution deferred.

What it still delivers is scale, including a vast rolling bomb through the streets of Rome. If you have come this far, watch it. If you are starting the series, know that it leaves you waiting.