Curtains Up on Furious 7

by Joseph Rossi

It`s James Bond with wheels…and it’s great.

Make way for one of the most dumb, illogical, entertaining, Hollywood messes ever made.  Vin Diesel and his crew take to the streets and to the skies in what is the best film in an entire series that is one big ode to testosterone.  The plot is set when series newcomer Djimon Hounsou’s  baddie of the week seeks out a new piece of surveillance tech that proves problematic to Diesel’s Dominc Toretto and his crew — sorry — family, of misfits. Throw in another villain named Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) who is seeking revenge for the death his little brother Owen Shaw (played by Luke Evans in the last film) and you got a movie.

Like the last installment, this is filled to the brim with set pieces that will leave the action crowd drooling.  I rarely ask myself how they do that but here, there are at least 4 sequences that are so mind blowingly complex and spectacular that they left me scratching my head in wonder and bewilderment.

It is hard to ignore the fact that Paul Walker died during the production of the film.  Even though his death made headlines, the production team pulled out all the stops to put Paul Walker back into the movie.  It is seamless.  The film takes great lengths to put Walkers character, Brian O’Conner, in harms way. We’re holding our breath every time the guy jumps off a bus that is hanging over a cliff or skydiving in the drivers set of a Ferrari. What will be the characters end? But when it does come, you, like me, will be misty eyed. For such a muscle filled, bag of tricks, in the end, the core of this whole endeavor is rather sentimental and I feel that is what separates these films with the rest of the action knock offs (Need for Speed anyone) `that are bombing at the box office.

This is one franchsie that derserves success because it delivers exactly what is promisese.  Thrills, humor and heart. Check your brain in at the door and enjoy.