The eighth instalment of the super successful Fast and Furious franchisee delivers what it promises, which is lots of stunts, lots of destruction and lots of fast cars. Unfortunately, it doesn’t deliver anything more than that. The storyline is wafer thin and it is hard to emotionally invest in characters.

That said, the likes of Vin Diesel, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Jason Statham have all essayed their roles with panache. Not like they had to emote a lot, or deliver long and emotional monologues – but still, all three of them did full justice to the ‘action hero’ tag.

But for me, the actor who was head and shoulders above all others was Charlize Theron. She looks menacing in the role of Cipher, and is convincing as a villain who makes even the mighty Vin Diesel look weak. Fortunately or unfortunately, her character doesn’t end in this edition as her last scene sees her escaping in a parachute. So we might see her character again in future Fast and Furious films.

Out of all the action scenes, the climax seen in the Russian snow takes the cake. Even though it is extremely well shot and executed, it’s a tad unbelievable considering the players here are no superheroes. They might be great with cars and dodging bullets, but the kind of stunts they pull of in this scene is at another level altogether. What next? An action scene on Mars, probably?

You can watch the film if you are a huge action film junkie or feel attached to the characters in the Fast series. If you are not, then you’ll do well to spend your money elsewhere. We’ll give the film 2.5 stars out 5.