Vin Diesel and Dwayne (“The Rock”) Johnson once again team up in “Furious 7”— the continuing saga that’s “Fast & Furious.”
And unless you have been hiding in a cave, this seventh installment of this movie franchise bids a tearful farewell to Paul Walker who had only just begun filming his scenes when his life was tragically taken in an automobile accident on November 30, 2013.
Walker’s Brian O’Conner, an anchor of this series, had to be reshot by director James Wan (“Saw”) using every piece of cutting room floor film of Walker available, alongside fast editing cuts using his brothers Cody and Caleb.
The results are amazing and places Walker’s O’Conner right next to Diesel’s Dominic Toretto as the pair once again make automobiles fly through the air and do things their creators in Detroit could only imagine.
Enter the villain, Deckard Shaw (played by the equally shaven headed Jason Statham) who is seeking revenge against Dominic Toretto and his family for the death of his baby brother Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) in 2013’s “Fast & Furious 6.” With revenge the inspiration, it was then easy for director Wan to “write” O’Conner out of the series and propel Toretto et al into a “furious” gang-style shoot ‘em up.
If you blink, you will miss the great Kurt Russell (“The Thing”) as “Mr. Nobody,” the real power behind what is really happening.
Shot on location in Abu Dhabi and Tokyo, the budget for “Furious 7” seems almost limitless as the fast cars and the skinniest of near-naked women depict a lifestyle that is impossible for the average human to obtain but Toretto and his gang—sorry—family suck it up like there is no tomorrow.
Does anyone actually live in this type of world? Having traveled most of the globe, this writer seems dubious at best as bullets fired from submachine guns usually hit their target and kill people and even one punch to the head by super-secret FBI agent Hobbs (Johnson) would put anyone into intensive care.
The “Fast & Furious” series has made much more than $1 billion in movie receipts (#6 cleared $787 million at the worldwide box office) and seems like nothing will slow it down for an eighth, ninth and beyond installments.
There is just something about hot cars doing the impossible that does something to me.
I liked this movie.
Sad to see Walker in his very final role, with or without the special effects to keep him in it and knowing that he was to be on the set filming this movie four days after his real life car crash that took his life is equally bittersweet.
Now the burden to carry this franchise will rest more on Diesel and wisecracking Tyrese Gibson.
Ah, no.
What this series needs is another calm, quiet and incredibly handsome replacement for Walker which may be hard to do; but then again James Bond has been reinvented time and again since the days of Sean Connery.
Statham does a yeoman’s job as the bad guy this franchise needs. The badder the bad guy, the more we will cheer on Toretto who in his own right is actually pretty bad.
If you love fast cars and a devotee of Paul Walker (no spoilers here how he meets his rather spectacular fiery end), pluck your pesos and enjoy another helping of Dominic Toretto and his family of fun loving criminals.
Can anyone say “Fast & Furious 8”?
Questions, comments or travel suggestions, write me at theruffolos@readingruffolos.com.