Review of Furious 7 (2015) by Patrick L — 19 Aug 2015

"Furious 7 is the biggest and fastest of them all. The tribute for Paul Walker couldn't be more perfect".

Movie Review: Furious 7.

Date Viewed: April 4 2015.

Directed By James Wan (Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring).

Written By Chris Morgan, Based on characters created by Gary Scott Thompson.

Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson, Michelle Rodriguez, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges,.

Jordana Brewster, Ronda Rousey, Tony Jaa,.

Djimon Hounsou, Natalie Emmanuel, Elsa Pataky, John Brotherton and Kurt Russell.

Once you defeated the sky, do you have to go into space? "Furious 7" has taken the action and great stunts to a whole new level. It is the biggest and fastest of them all. The tribute to it's late star Paul Walker couldn't be more perfect. Walker died in a horrific car crash on November 30, 2013. He still had scenes to finish and the production on "Furious 7" was put to a halt by Universal. Somehow, Director James Wan and the entire cast and crew managed to finish the movie with the help of Paul Walker's two brothers, Caleb and Cody. They were used as body doubles to complete Paul Walker's final scenes. Who knew that a big, zany, playful action movie could spark a few tears at the end.

"Furious 7" takes place after the events of "Fast & Furious 6" where Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) is hunting down Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and the rest of his crew. Deckard breaks into a secure hospital where his brother (the villain from the previous movie), Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) is being held. Owen is now in a comatose state and Deckard vows to find the men who did this to him. When he reaches the U.S., Deckard breaks into Luke Hobbs' office and he detonates a bomb that sends him flying off the building. Hobbs somehow lands onto the roof of a car and he is severely injured.

When he reaches Tokyo, Deckard not only kills Han (Sung Kang), he also puts a bomb in a package and sends it to the Toretto family where it explodes and destroys Dom's house. With Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) in the hospital, Dom, Brian O'Conner (Walker), Roman Pierce (Tyrese Gibson), Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) and Tej Parker (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) are now the only ones who could stop Shaw but a covert ops team led by Frank Petty (Kurt Russell) offers to help them out if they do him a favor.

Dom and his crew must rescue a female hacker named Ramsey (Natalie Emmanuel) and retrieve her creation the God's Eye from a group mercenaries led by Jakande (Djimon Hounsou). What is the God's Eye? It's a computer flash drive that can use digital devices to track down a specific individual. If Dom and his crew are able to save Ramsey and retrieve the God's Eye, they can use it to track down Deckard Shaw. Of course, we didn't come to see the last two "Fast & Furious" movies for plot, installments "Five" and "Six" and were about the great action sequences and spectacular stunts.

Justin Lin who directed "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift", "Fast & Furious", "Fast Five" and "Fast & Furious 6" is not back for "Seven". He gave the director's chair to James Wan who is best known for making horror movies such as "The Conjuring" and "Saw". The verdict is out! Wan knows how to put a circus together. He stages some of the best action sequences I've seen in an action movie to date. Sure, this movie is preposterous but this is "Fast & Furious 7" it delivers the goods. Once again, Gibson and Bridges are the comic relief, Rodriguez is the sexy badass and Johnson is the indestructible Hulk. After four lame action movies in a row, Jason Statham has got his groove back, he is menacing as Deckard Shaw. Kurt Russell delivers a great supporting performance as the mysterious government agent and making his American movie debut, Tony Jaa really shows that he can kick ass as Jakande's right-hand man.

This franchise is also known for having great cars. There are a lot of them in this movie but most of them get completely destroyed. "Furious 7" may be loud and over-the-top but it's an explosive ride and it's a great send-off for the late Paul Walker.