Who could have predicted back in 2001 that a humble little crime film filled with fast cars could have spawned a franchise with 10 entries?
Back then, The Fast and the Furious was just a Point Break rip-off, but with cars instead of surfboards.
And it was fun. The film was widely enjoyed as a crime caper with some street racing and daring car stunts.
Now, eight sequels and a spin-off later, the Fast and Furious franchise is ridiculous, bombastic and completely outside the realm of believability.
Fast 9 sees most of the crew accumulated over the previous films back together to recover a piece of technology (ie, plot device) that would grant the user control of every technological device.
After the enigmatic Mr Nobody (Kurt Russell, back for a few tiny flashbacks) sends a message to the team as his plane goes down, the Fast crew head to an island to find the mysterious technology, only to be faced with someone most never knew existed - another Torretto.
Dom Torretto (Vin Diesel), of course, has been with the franchise since the beginning - spouting the importance of family, etc etc.
So it's a stretch that the fact he has a brother has never come up in 20 years of films.
Anywho, John Cena (Trainwreck) steps into Jakob Torretto's antagonist shoes, and bungles the team's plans.
This sees Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Mia (Jordana Brewster), Tej (Ludacris), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), a resurrected Han (Sung Kang) and even Sean (Lucas Black) and Twinkie (Shad 'Lil Bow Wow' Moss) from Tokyo Drift, spread out across the world in their attempt to find and take down Jakob before he activates the weapon.
Fast 9 is even more ridiculous than any of its predecessors - which is really saying something considering they have included jumping cars between skyscrapers, flexing out of arm casts and catching missiles with bare hands.
In a series that is supposed to take place in a world ruled by the same physics we enjoy every day - Tej even says "numbers don't lie, it's just physics" while in bloody space - it is just impossible to stay invested in the movie without questioning your sanity.
On the plus side, they're drinking Corona again.