Let’s talk for a moment about Peplum, the swords and sandals films that created shows with exaggerated biblical tragedies without much intention other than to be. Some of these films are highly regarded, many of them (including a huge number of Italian productions) critically reviled or publicly mocked, especially by more cynical viewers who see them with perspective. Yet they did see each other.
An argument could be made that the current average blockbuster is a regurgitation of the peplum, of the show for no reason without real aspects to scratch and even easy to disassemble, exchanging the craftsmanship of sets and costumes for green screen exuberance. However, there is a saga that really exemplifies the funny rave to which the peplum could sometimes reach, and it has reached up to ten films, raising the stakes more and more.
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The latest of them, ‘Fast & Furious 9’ has just arrived on Amazon Prime Video to blow up the platform in the same way that it did in its euphoric premiere in theaters. His disheveled (and even brainless) show was welcomed with open arms after a year of confinement due to the pandemic, and it was a collective catharsis through remembering how good fun without complexes feels in a large room.
It is not worth remembering plot issues, they were always the least of a saga that has enjoyed the thick stroke in their family conflicts. “The family” led by Vin Diesel faces a new international challenge with another science fiction threat and the only way to solve it is with cars and destruction in full view of the world.
Chases through the jungle at full speed, hanging from vines if necessary, driving through narrow European streets, indiscriminate use of magnets for fights on wheels and even a crazy trip to outer space. Justin Lin chains sequences that continue to raise the absurd stake of ‘Fast & Furious’ and find deep joy in all of it.
‘Fast & Furious 9’: the new peplum
In addition to making a huge and impossible action fairly comprehensible, Lin manages to give the film an interesting base that, although it does not need, exploits an emotional factor that fulfills the same function as the most exaggerated sequences. The conflict of Diesel’s Dom Toretto with his missing sister, played by John Cena, has the same traits of biblical tragedy that the peplum has exploded so much, and that it gives a functional skeleton but crazy enough not to clash with the noise of the other scenes.
This work that many would see as totally dispensable is just what Lin brings to a saga that, luckily, never needs alibis of any kind to get going. You can pretend to disassemble them, but ‘Fast and Furious 9’ is the umpteenth example of how to enjoy the merriment, of how embrace the absurd and make the viewer an accomplice to make a highly entertaining journey. In that sense, they know how to do their job like few action franchises.
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