Movie Review with Jeff McCullough: Furious 7
By Connect-Bridgeport Staff on April 10, 2015 from Movie Review
Gears are being shifted, engines are revving, and bald men are flexing their muscles at each other. It can only be time for another lap with The Fast and the Furious, the most insane drag-racing action flick ever put on celluloid. After six entries Vin Diesel and pals know what they’re doing, and while Furious 7 isn’t a perfect film, it’s the compilation of 14 years of work producing the best entry fans could ever hope for.
With a $250,000,000 budget (higher than the total box office of the original The Fast and the Furious back in 2001), an all-star cast of the best action stars that aren’t currently receiving pension checks, and a script that includes muscle cars taking down entire skyscrapers, you have a winner of a film and the most fun I’ve had in a long time, in a movie or not.
Starring Vin Diesel, The Rock, Jason Statham, and various other men lacking hair as well as sleeves, Furious Seven kicks off right where we left off in number six; with criminal scumbag Owen Shaw eating his meals out of a straw after getting his drug dealing butt handed to him by Dom’s crew of street racer mercenaries.
Unfortunately for our loveable dragsters, Owens big, bad, former black ops brother Deckard Shaw, played by Statham, isn’t very happy about the whole crippling of a beloved younger sibling. He shows this displeasure by murdering seemingly every cop in the tri-state area, blowing their friend Hobbs out a window, and starting to hunt the whole gang down one by one.
Now Dom isn’t going to take this sitting down because (now everybody do their best Vin Diesel impression) “Family is everything.” Chaos, gunfire, and enough testosterone to burn off your eyebrows ensues.
You don’t go to see a Fast and Furious movie for the acting, and that remains the case here. I think the closest Vin Diesel got to showing emotion was when his scowl turned to a grimace. You also don’t go in expecting anything close to reality. Isaac Newton would shed a tear to see the physics in this film. What you do go in to see is insane action, attractive women, and the best one liners this side of Arnold Schwarzenegger. On those counts, Furious 7 delivers. And what a delivery it is.
The Rock wielding a mini-gun, drone attacks, two separate cities destroyed, cars flown out of airplanes, cars smashed through skyscrapers, cars smashed into each other; there are so many breath taking scenes, an altogether overindulging abundance of awesomeness that makes you want to get on your feet and scream. It’s everything a fan could want and oh so much more.
If this entry has one flaw, it’s a lack of focus in the third act. Jason Statham wrecks some serious faces throughout the entire movie, periodically showing up armed to the teeth and ready to kill. Unfortunately, he ends up being a bit overshadowed. The film’s climax, while featuring Statham, is dominated by faceless mercenaries with none of the menacing charm that made Deckard stand out. As the headlining villain, Shaw brings a great and entertaining villain to the table, but the portion could’ve been larger.
And of course, you can’t discuss Furious 7, or the franchise as a whole, without discussing Paul Walker’s death. Playing Brian O’Connor, a member of Dom’s crew and one of his best friends in six out of seven of the Fast and Furious films, his death during Furious 7’s production was a real tragedy, and many were afraid the film would remain incomplete in light of it.
Thankfully through the miracles of CGI, stand-ins, and the devotion of cast mate and real-life best friend Vin Diesel, his role was complete, and while if your nit picking you can see the differences, it’s a largely seamless transition. A truly heartfelt goodbye concludes Brian’s story, and serves as a memoriam of to an actor who left us far too soon. As Dom and Brian drive down life’s different paths, I’m not ashamed to say my cold, cynical critic’s heart felt just a little bit warmer.
Furious 7 is loud, dumb, and utterly fantastic; exactly what I was wanting from a franchise that has grown so much, it’s a ride worth taking.
4.5 out of 5 Stars
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