Furious 7 should be the best bad movie of 2015. This is a film that features Dwayne The Rock Johnson strolling down the streets of downtown Los Angeles as he fires a Gatling gun at a helicopter. This is a film where Vin Diesel uses head-on collisions as an assault tactic not once, but twice. This is a film where Paul Walker leaps from a bus to catch the rear spoiler of a speeding car before tumbling over a cliff.
Theres reality, theres virtual reality, and then theres Fast and Furious Reality.
Somehow, director James Wan has managed to cram more carnage, awful dialogue and scantily-clad extras into Furious 7 than we got from the first six films combined. The movie feels like the pinnacle of a mountain we never should have climbed, but should climb anyway if only to see the outfit Diesel picks out for his own wedding.
Somewhere in this mess, an obligatory plot provides an excuse for two hours of mayhem that boils down to this: The good guys are trying to kill the bad guy before the bad guy can kill them.
The new bad guy, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), is the brother of the last bad guy. Shaw blames Dominic Toretto (Diesel) and his crew for putting his brother in the hospital, and has sworn vengeance. Toretto already lost two members of his crew in the last movie, so when a mysterious government figure named Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) shows up with a Godfather-like offer, everyone saddles up for one last assault on the laws of physics.
Mr. Nobodys offer concerns the Gods Eye, a surveillance program that makes Big Brother look like Kid Sister. If Toretto can free a hacker named Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) from the clutches of another bad guy (Djimon Hounsou), Mr. Nobody will let him use the program to hunt down Shaw.
You can guess what happens from here, and not just because the films trailer gave away several of Furious 7s best moments. The plot takes us from the United States to Asia to the Middle East, and back to the States again, leaving a path of destruction and laughably outrageous stunts in its wake.
Its not a bad run for a franchise that used to be about street racing.
Speaking of which, Furious 7 wont go down as the best film in the series, but it will be the film that lets audiences say goodbye to Walker. Walker died before filming was complete, and Furious 7 became a tribute to the fallen actor. Filmmakers used his two brothers and some CGI magic to finish his scenes. The scenes blend well, but some pointed dialogue makes it hard to separate the reality from the fiction.
Sentiment aside, franchise fans will get their moneys worth with Furious 7. The film is packed with familiar faces, fast cars and the kind of dialogue that feels like it was written with a blindfold and a dartboard. "It's time for daddy to go to work," indeed.
The key to any good action movie is a great bad guy, but Statham feels wasted as Shaw pops up spontaneously in scene after scene to cause havoc and get into semi-believable fistfights with actors much bigger than him. Adding Statham to the already bloated cast makes Furious 7 feel more like another Expendables movie, and the supporting turns by MMA fighter Ronda Rousey and Russell enhance the vibe even further.
Yet as awful as it is, Furious 7 is relentlessly entertaining, and a challenge for anyone paid to analyze movies. Can you really call a film bad if it achieves exactly what it sets out to achieve?
Furious 7 is rated PG-13 for nonstop mayhem and action violence, consistent profanity and gratuitous sexual content.
Theres reality, theres virtual reality, and then theres Fast and Furious Reality.
Somehow, director James Wan has managed to cram more carnage, awful dialogue and scantily-clad extras into Furious 7 than we got from the first six films combined. The movie feels like the pinnacle of a mountain we never should have climbed, but should climb anyway if only to see the outfit Diesel picks out for his own wedding.
Somewhere in this mess, an obligatory plot provides an excuse for two hours of mayhem that boils down to this: The good guys are trying to kill the bad guy before the bad guy can kill them.
The new bad guy, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), is the brother of the last bad guy. Shaw blames Dominic Toretto (Diesel) and his crew for putting his brother in the hospital, and has sworn vengeance. Toretto already lost two members of his crew in the last movie, so when a mysterious government figure named Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) shows up with a Godfather-like offer, everyone saddles up for one last assault on the laws of physics.
Mr. Nobodys offer concerns the Gods Eye, a surveillance program that makes Big Brother look like Kid Sister. If Toretto can free a hacker named Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) from the clutches of another bad guy (Djimon Hounsou), Mr. Nobody will let him use the program to hunt down Shaw.
You can guess what happens from here, and not just because the films trailer gave away several of Furious 7s best moments. The plot takes us from the United States to Asia to the Middle East, and back to the States again, leaving a path of destruction and laughably outrageous stunts in its wake.
Its not a bad run for a franchise that used to be about street racing.
Speaking of which, Furious 7 wont go down as the best film in the series, but it will be the film that lets audiences say goodbye to Walker. Walker died before filming was complete, and Furious 7 became a tribute to the fallen actor. Filmmakers used his two brothers and some CGI magic to finish his scenes. The scenes blend well, but some pointed dialogue makes it hard to separate the reality from the fiction.
Sentiment aside, franchise fans will get their moneys worth with Furious 7. The film is packed with familiar faces, fast cars and the kind of dialogue that feels like it was written with a blindfold and a dartboard. "It's time for daddy to go to work," indeed.
The key to any good action movie is a great bad guy, but Statham feels wasted as Shaw pops up spontaneously in scene after scene to cause havoc and get into semi-believable fistfights with actors much bigger than him. Adding Statham to the already bloated cast makes Furious 7 feel more like another Expendables movie, and the supporting turns by MMA fighter Ronda Rousey and Russell enhance the vibe even further.
Yet as awful as it is, Furious 7 is relentlessly entertaining, and a challenge for anyone paid to analyze movies. Can you really call a film bad if it achieves exactly what it sets out to achieve?
Furious 7 is rated PG-13 for nonstop mayhem and action violence, consistent profanity and gratuitous sexual content.
