Furious 7 (B- or 2.5/4 stars)
'Furious 7' (directed by James Wan, Insidious). Yes, the 7th Fast & the Furious movie. Yes, that's right ... another one. And I am sure there will be more to come. But THIS particular movie will stand-out from the rest. A dark cloud hangs over the proceedings because, in real life, star Paul Walker died in a horrific car crash towards the end of production. A dark cloud, but also a shining light as seen in a touching tribute at the end of the movie. But again, it IS a Fast & the Furious movie, which means: lots of action, lots of women in thongs, piss-poor acting, but also some INCREDIBLE stunt work; work that left my mouth wide open in spots. So, onto the “plot”. As the movie starts, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is still suffering from amnesia (from the 6th film); she doesn't remember just how much she loves Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel). And Brian O'Conner (Walker) is getting used to domestic life with his wife, Mia (Jordana Brewster).
Enter holdover villain Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham, who gets a GREAT entrance) who is visiting his brother, Owen (Luke Evans) - the defeated, comatose villain from the 6th film - in the hospital. Filled with rage, he vows revenge against Dom & his friends. Along with Brian & Letty, they include jokester Roman (Tyrese Gibson), as well as Tej (Ludacris), who must rally together to avenge the death of one of their own (Han), as well as fight for good pal Hobbes (Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson) who - like Owen Shaw - lies in a hospital bed; courtesy of Deckard Shaw. Meanwhile, a strange high-tech caper subplot enters the fray when mysterious secret agent Mr. Nobody (a fun Kurt Russell) offers Dom & his team aid in getting Deckard Shaw ... but only if they'll help rescue an important kidnapped hacker named Ramsey (pretty bond-like girl, Nathalie Emmanuel). And on top of all of that, this puts yet another baddie, Jakande (a foaming-at-the-mouth Djimon Hounsou), hot on their trail. Glamorous globe-trotting, intense car racing, pummeling fights, & other such chaos ensue.
You know, for a little over an hour, I was having an absolute BLAST with 'Furious 7'. I was happy to see the group together. Jason Statham had the early makings of a great villain (he's usually the good guy). The Rock brought a big, goofy smile to my face {he soon disappears from the proceedings until near the end, bummer}. Watching Paul Walker do his thing was fascinating to watch; knowing that he would have no clue that he wouldn't survive the shoot). And the action? Well. It's initially stupendous. I am reminded of a thrillingly absurd sequence that starts with our heroes cascading from the back of a plane while inside their muscle cars (parachutes attached), and continues on solid ground in an amazing armored bus/car chase that weaves all along the Caucusus mountainside. Simply put, I couldn't BELIEVE what I was watching. Inexplicably, our heroes don’t even get a scratch, but it was awesome nevertheless-- can't think of a better way to put it.
But with an hour left in the proceedings, I started to become a tad bored by admittedly flashy set pieces in both Abu Dhabi {like a poor man's Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol}, as well as Los Angeles. The Abu Dhabi set piece does have its strong suits. i.e., an unbelievable car heist in which Dom & Brian must drive said car from one skyscraper, through the glass wall, sail in the air, crash land into the next skyscraper, break through the glass, sail through the air, & crash land into another skyscraper. Yes, you read that correctly. But unfortunately, the rest of the movie just descends into one big, loud, crazy, redundant mash 'em, bash 'em, & crash 'em experience. The early gravity-defying, but gleeful action sequences disappears and what we get left is dark, incomprehensible, logic-free, consequence-free action set pieces in which characters start saying and/or doing stupid things amid the huggge, longggg, drawn outtttt climactic battle in L.A..
That's the thing. While it's nice to see these characters again, and while it's clear that the cast clearly loves each other, and while I appreciate that these characters clearly love each other and, there's all this talk of "family" (and "don't mess with my family!", and Rah-Rah "you can't break my family!!") ... it all starts to feel a bit phony & stale when ALL there is to the script is THAT + the never-ending, tiresome action scenes. I blame scripter Chris Morgan for giving these characters virtually nothing new to do. They all say dumb things. They don't sound overly convincing saying the lines. It's as if the filmmakers just hope that the action & mayhem will compensate for the lack of, well, anything else that's in the story. The energy eventually flags is what I'm trying to say. The magic of the 1st hour can't be sustained.
'Furious 7', much like its predecessors, is all about the MORE. More destruction. More impossible car stunts. More exotic locales. More brutal fist fights. More clunky dialogues. More noise. More, more, MORE. Why can't better stories be created? Why can't smarter dialogues spout from the characters' mouths? Why can't we have a 90 minute, fun, fresh, blast of a time that the 1st hour gave us in spades? Why did there have to be another 65 minutes of incessant MORE-ness? Wow, this review may read like I hated this movie. I didn't. I actually liked too much of it to even give it a poor rating. I was entertained more than I wasn't. This movie is ... fine. I am just consistently disappointed that, by now, they aren't better.
The other reason I give this film a slightly passing grade is because of the elegiac final 5-10 minutes which honors the character of Brian ... and the actor who plays him, Paul Walker. Now, there IS something ghoulish & slightly off-putting about honoring Walker who died while in a speeding car; especially because he performed all his crazy car stunts in these movies with aplomb and always came-out unscathed. But I digress. Through the magic of CGI, Brian is given a lovely, poignant send-off in which the faces of Paul Walker's two brothers stand-in for the actor's uncompleted scenes. The final 5-10 minutes will make many grown men wipe tears from their eyes {women & children, too}. 'Furious 7', like the other flicks in this franchise, is little more than a foggy haze of muscle cars & explosions for me. The plot? Like the other F&F flicks, I barely remember it already. But I AM gung-ho about the 1st hour of this film and, I will sorely miss Paul Walker's presence.
Enter holdover villain Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham, who gets a GREAT entrance) who is visiting his brother, Owen (Luke Evans) - the defeated, comatose villain from the 6th film - in the hospital. Filled with rage, he vows revenge against Dom & his friends. Along with Brian & Letty, they include jokester Roman (Tyrese Gibson), as well as Tej (Ludacris), who must rally together to avenge the death of one of their own (Han), as well as fight for good pal Hobbes (Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson) who - like Owen Shaw - lies in a hospital bed; courtesy of Deckard Shaw. Meanwhile, a strange high-tech caper subplot enters the fray when mysterious secret agent Mr. Nobody (a fun Kurt Russell) offers Dom & his team aid in getting Deckard Shaw ... but only if they'll help rescue an important kidnapped hacker named Ramsey (pretty bond-like girl, Nathalie Emmanuel). And on top of all of that, this puts yet another baddie, Jakande (a foaming-at-the-mouth Djimon Hounsou), hot on their trail. Glamorous globe-trotting, intense car racing, pummeling fights, & other such chaos ensue.
You know, for a little over an hour, I was having an absolute BLAST with 'Furious 7'. I was happy to see the group together. Jason Statham had the early makings of a great villain (he's usually the good guy). The Rock brought a big, goofy smile to my face {he soon disappears from the proceedings until near the end, bummer}. Watching Paul Walker do his thing was fascinating to watch; knowing that he would have no clue that he wouldn't survive the shoot). And the action? Well. It's initially stupendous. I am reminded of a thrillingly absurd sequence that starts with our heroes cascading from the back of a plane while inside their muscle cars (parachutes attached), and continues on solid ground in an amazing armored bus/car chase that weaves all along the Caucusus mountainside. Simply put, I couldn't BELIEVE what I was watching. Inexplicably, our heroes don’t even get a scratch, but it was awesome nevertheless-- can't think of a better way to put it.
But with an hour left in the proceedings, I started to become a tad bored by admittedly flashy set pieces in both Abu Dhabi {like a poor man's Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol}, as well as Los Angeles. The Abu Dhabi set piece does have its strong suits. i.e., an unbelievable car heist in which Dom & Brian must drive said car from one skyscraper, through the glass wall, sail in the air, crash land into the next skyscraper, break through the glass, sail through the air, & crash land into another skyscraper. Yes, you read that correctly. But unfortunately, the rest of the movie just descends into one big, loud, crazy, redundant mash 'em, bash 'em, & crash 'em experience. The early gravity-defying, but gleeful action sequences disappears and what we get left is dark, incomprehensible, logic-free, consequence-free action set pieces in which characters start saying and/or doing stupid things amid the huggge, longggg, drawn outtttt climactic battle in L.A..
That's the thing. While it's nice to see these characters again, and while it's clear that the cast clearly loves each other, and while I appreciate that these characters clearly love each other and, there's all this talk of "family" (and "don't mess with my family!", and Rah-Rah "you can't break my family!!") ... it all starts to feel a bit phony & stale when ALL there is to the script is THAT + the never-ending, tiresome action scenes. I blame scripter Chris Morgan for giving these characters virtually nothing new to do. They all say dumb things. They don't sound overly convincing saying the lines. It's as if the filmmakers just hope that the action & mayhem will compensate for the lack of, well, anything else that's in the story. The energy eventually flags is what I'm trying to say. The magic of the 1st hour can't be sustained.
'Furious 7', much like its predecessors, is all about the MORE. More destruction. More impossible car stunts. More exotic locales. More brutal fist fights. More clunky dialogues. More noise. More, more, MORE. Why can't better stories be created? Why can't smarter dialogues spout from the characters' mouths? Why can't we have a 90 minute, fun, fresh, blast of a time that the 1st hour gave us in spades? Why did there have to be another 65 minutes of incessant MORE-ness? Wow, this review may read like I hated this movie. I didn't. I actually liked too much of it to even give it a poor rating. I was entertained more than I wasn't. This movie is ... fine. I am just consistently disappointed that, by now, they aren't better.
The other reason I give this film a slightly passing grade is because of the elegiac final 5-10 minutes which honors the character of Brian ... and the actor who plays him, Paul Walker. Now, there IS something ghoulish & slightly off-putting about honoring Walker who died while in a speeding car; especially because he performed all his crazy car stunts in these movies with aplomb and always came-out unscathed. But I digress. Through the magic of CGI, Brian is given a lovely, poignant send-off in which the faces of Paul Walker's two brothers stand-in for the actor's uncompleted scenes. The final 5-10 minutes will make many grown men wipe tears from their eyes {women & children, too}. 'Furious 7', like the other flicks in this franchise, is little more than a foggy haze of muscle cars & explosions for me. The plot? Like the other F&F flicks, I barely remember it already. But I AM gung-ho about the 1st hour of this film and, I will sorely miss Paul Walker's presence.