@The Midi-chlorian Count said:

Never seen any other F&F film mind you but I suspect that makes no odds whatsoever 😂

Not really. That said, Mme LeMarchand and I always avoided the F&F films (neither of us are petrolheads), but were swayed by the trailer for 5, which turned out to be a lot of big, dumb, fun. Have seen all subsequent episodes at the cinema and went back to catch up on earlier ones. Even the earlier ones aren't too bad, though we find the later, more OTT ones, more entertaining.

Funny you said that - I was just speaking to someone earlier today who pretty much said exactly the same thing, i.e. just start watching them from No. 5!

@The Midi-chlorian Count said:

Funny you said that - I was just speaking to someone earlier today who pretty much said exactly the same thing, i.e. just start watching them from No. 5!

Technically the F&F 'cinematic universe' started at Fast Five, kind of like how Mission Impossible got good when Tom Cruise reassessed the franchise with Ghost Protocol after two subpar releases with MI2/3 [depends who you ask tho]

The first F&F itself is an amazing film that can stand on its own, with following films 2, 3 and 4 being somewhat attempts to make more money under the title, Fast Five however changed angle on how they wanted to present the franchise... aka big theme of 'Family' thanks to Vin Diesel's very fine line between character and IRL actor.

When it comes to Hobbs and Shaw it only partially delivers as a F&F film, since Johnson and Diesel had dramas, they decided to branch off - with only one patented NOS scene with the Cliff-side sequence. The rest of the film however works because of the leads playing off of eachother and the addition of Vanessa Kirby playing the sister of Deckard Shaw.

Solid 6/10 for me, however not exactly something I would have asked for when it came to the franchise.

I agree that Fast Five was the first full film in the second phase of the Fast films, but I think that the change in direction started at the end of this scene from Fast 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhphnhnvD9I