Saw three movies this Memorial Day Weekend. First up was “Fast X”, the latest in the the “Fast and Furious” series. As with past installments there are lots of car chases using special effects and lots of fighting. This time there is a super villain played by Jason Mamoa, who enlists an army of bad guys to bring down Dominic Toretto and his “family”. Charize Theron and Jason Stratham are brought in for good effect. High on action, low on plot and dialogue, You don’t go to “Fast and Furious” movies for intellectual stimulation. This film does not disappoint on the action level and leaves the viewer with an opening for the next installment. By the way, this is Vin Diesel’s second best performance this year. He was better as Groot in “Guardians of the Galaxy, Chapter 3”, mainly because he had less dialogue.
The second film was “About My Father”, written and starring Sebastian Maniscalco as the son of an Italian immigrant, played by Robert DeNiro, The first half, when they are establishing the back story, is pretty funny. Much of it is taken from Maniscalco’s stand up comedy. DeNiro is his immigrant, hair dresser father, steeped in Sicilian tradition, Sebastian’s girlfriend is from a wealthy, waspy family and father and son are invited to spend the July 4th weekend at their estate. Lots of fish-out-of-water humor. During this latter portion the movie becomes formulaic. Maniscalco’s stand up is hilarious. Had he stuck to that type of storyline this film might have been better.
The third movie was “The Machine”, which I knew nothing about when I bought my ticket. It is based on Bert Kreischer’s stand up routine where he talks about his time in college when he studied in Russia where he became a legend with the Russian mafia. As preposterous as this sounds, it really happened. The story takes place in modern times, Kreischer is kidnapped back to Russia with his father, played by Mark Hamill. Kreischer, who is called the Machine in the movie and in show business, has father issues. This film is fall down funny, but not for the easily offended. Lots of gratuitous killing and use of profanity, but in the end it is pretty hilarious.