Sixteen years? Seven movies? No big deal – the “Fast and the Furious” film franchise is very much alive, well, and poised to break box office records again with “The Fate of the Furious,” the series’ eighth entry.

Despite several key departures, the film delivers its predecessors’ signature brand of high-octane action, over-the-top set pieces and banter-driven humor while also providing stunning visuals that should make even longtime fans “oooh” and “ahh.”

As has been the case for these films for a while now, suspension of disbelief is key. There’s lots of fun to be had here – just don’t think about it too much.

What's it about?

“The Fate of the Furious” picks up not long after the end of 2015’s “Furious 7.” The crew has once again gone their separate ways. Dom (Vin Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) enjoy a long-overdue honeymoon in mostly likely the perfect place for them: Havana, Cuba, where car culture is as ingrained as cigars and mojitos.

Their bliss doesn’t last long, however. Dom is confronted by a mysterious woman (Charlize Theron) who coerces him into doing the one thing he’s preached to his friends one never does: turn his back on family.

The woman turns out to be “Cypher”, a well-known and globally-feared cyberterrorist. Once evidence surfaces that Cypher is working with Dom, smooth-talking government agent Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) recruits Letty, Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges), and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) to track him down and find out why, among other things, he’s betrayed them.

Oh, and because Dom is no ordinary target, Nobody adds one more to the party: Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), the crew’s formidable adversary the last time around. Naturally, as Shaw claimed to kill their friend Han (Sung Kang) and put Hobbs in the hospital not long ago, there’s a bit of tension in the room following Nobody’s decision.

Shaw has his own bone to pick with Cypher, however, and so settling scores are put aside to defeat a common enemy. But can this team truly bring in the man who brought them together? Assuming they can, will they ever truly be a family again, after Dom breaks his one, unbreakable rule?

Ride or die

Considering all that “Furious 7” achieved just two years ago, it’d be natural to expect a letdown from “The Fate of the Furious,” even from the most “ride or die” devotee. In addition to its record-setting box officer performance, the new film has a new director, and is the first in the series made entirely following the death of actor Paul Walker in 2013.

Thankfully, that new director is F. Gary Gray. Gray’s resumé – from “Straight Outta Compton” to “The Italian Job”, “The Negotiator”, and “Friday” – is at this point is synonymous with versatility and vision.

Working with veteran “Fast and the Furious” screenwriter Chris Morgan, Gray gives fans exactly what they walk into the movie hoping for: exotic locations, beautiful cars, insane car chases, flinch-inspiring fight scenes and plenty of banter and trash-talk.

Further, he delivers it all bundled up with original action sequences that could only happen in one of these movies.  After all, where else might audiences see dozens of cars literally falling out of the sky on top of New York City traffic, or a submarine firing torpedoes at our heroes as they race across frozen lakes in Russia?

Yup -- nowhere else, and nowhere else would all that craziness result in this much fun that an audience will completely buy into. Gray just “gets it”, and he provides it well enough that fans should hope he returns to helm future installments.

Gang's all here

The returning cast of “The Fate of the Furious” also gives fans precisely what they expect in terms of how this family works together and relates to one another.

What does that mean, exactly? It means Hobbs and Shaw trade elaborate and hilarious threats of bodily harm and humiliation. It means Roman complains a lot and Tej gives him grief for it. It means Letty getting into arguably the toughest fist-fight in the movie and giving as good as she gets.

As for new additions to the ensemble, Charlize Theron is the obvious standout. No stranger to villainess roles, Theron makes Cypher very easy to loathe. She delivers her every line as a silky soft whisper dripping with malice, her eyes vacant of empathy or any other emotion except for rage when crossed.

It must be said that the film’s script does Theron no favors – her dialogue more so than any other character is rife with “bad guy” clichés. It should stand then as another testament to just how talented and charismatic a performer she is that she still makes the role work.

There are a couple of other new additions and cameos that audiences should look out for, but I won’t give those away here. Just enjoy them when they happen.

Worth seeing?

Whether you’ve loved the “Fast and the Furious” franchise from the start all those years ago or you just got on board recently, seeing “The Fate of the Furious” in theaters should be a no-brainer. Don’t hesitate to pay the premium price to see it in IMAX, either – the spectacles in the film are well worth the extra cost of admission.

Audiences coming into “The Fate of the Furious” cold, without all the backstory from the previous films, will still get an enjoyable action extravaganza, assuming they suspend all disbelief the minute the credits roll. Forget the logic, ignore the plotholes, and just enjoy the chases, the stunts and the banter.

If you can do that, you may just find yourself looking forward to the next movie.

The Fate of the Furious

Starring Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Helen Mirren, Nathalie Emmanuel, Elsa Pataky, Scott Eastwood with Kurt Russell and Charlize Theron. Directed by F. Gary Gray
Running time: 136 minutes
Rated PG-13 for prolonged sequences of violence and destruction, suggestive content, and language