"Furious 7" Review: Film Won't Disappoint Fans!
It’s one thing to go into a movie to be entertained, but there’s something to be said about movies that you go into with baggage and expectations. With “Furious 7”, the untimely death of Paul Walker casts a shadow on the film, but doesn’t eclipse it. In fact, for die hard fans we got what we wanted; it’s the same high-octane, unbelievable stunts that we’ve come to love, tie-ins to prior films, and the proper send off to a major character in the franchise.
Picking up where “Fast & Furious 6” ended, we get one of the best slow reveal openings I’ve seen in a while. Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) makes an oath to his unconscious brother Owen (Luke Shaw) to finish the job he started in putting the “family” in body bags. Deckard, of course, is ten times smarter and more ruthless than his brother. He’s an ex-black ops asset that was so skilled he turned into a ghost after his own government tried to terminate him due to all of the sensitive intel he knew. Deckard gets straight to it! He kills Han (Sung Kang) (as seen at the end of FF6), pays a visit to Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) to secure the locations of Dominic Toretto’s (Vin Diesel) Crew, and sends a bomb to Dom’s old house.
With that, the gang is pulled back into the life. For Brian (Paul Walker), it’s a welcomed reunion as he “misses the bullets” as a now domesticated father and husband to Mia (Jordana Brewster). It’s the fine line between the old life, and new life for Brian that gives the film some of it’s emotional gravity. For Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Tej (Ludacris), and Roman (Tyrese Gibson) it’s another day in the office.
How do you catch a ghost? Enter Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell), something of a governmental ghost himself, who has been chasing Shaw for years. Mr. Nobody guarantees to help the family take down Shaw if they secure a much sought after, newly developed, global spy application called “God’s Eye”.
As per usual Dom’s crew gets strung along to do someone else’s dirty work in order to get their own personal needs met. The most annoying thing is that with each victory or setback, Shaw turns up like the kid copying off of your homework. Even with that, it doesn’t take away from the intense weight that each heist, fight, or stunt carries in the film.
*Spoiler Alert: Paul Walker Homage- skip the next paragraph*
I hate doing spoilers, but the construction of the Brian/Paul Walker send off was extremely well done and worth breaking down. First, the subtext of the entire ending was that while Brian is saying goodbye to Dom, the cast didn’t get to say goodbye to their friend in real life. As Dom pulls up to a crossroad, Brian joins him dressed in white and in a white car (no coincidence). Reminiscent of the two racing each other in the past, they both take off for a stretch, as Dom’s voiceover tells a story of their unbroken bond. The camera then cranes up as Brian’s car pulls off to the left from the main road. We follow Brian’s car for a while and then lift to the heavens as the screen dissolves to white. It’s an absolutely majestic way of saying so much without being on the nose, and a great homage to Paul Walker.
*End Spoiler*
“Furious 7” will not disappoint and it continues the new legacy of over the top action, hard nosed characters, and emotional beats to match. I would love to be in the writer’s room as they discuss “what could we do to top the last film and push this even further?”! It seems we’ll find out that answer in the 8th installment. For now, the true fans of the franchise will soak up and appreciate the beautiful film we were given in spite of the tragic real life occurrences in “Furious 7”. That has to be commended and respected!
Rating: B+
Expend "The Expendables" Already!
I’ll keep it real, I enjoy “The Expendables” franchise because they have all the action stars I grew up on in one place. They know who they are, former blockbuster heavy weights who still have a little gas in the tank. I love the corny one-liners that allow them to make fun of each other or themselves, but this franchise needs to retire to straight to DVD land.
The third installment opens with a classic liberation stunt in which Barney (Sylvester Stallone) and the rest of The Expendables free Doc (Wesley Snipes) from a highly secured prison train in route to a maximum security prison in the middle of nowhere. From there we find the crew plus Doc going after maniacal arms dealer Stonebanks (Mel Gibson), a former Expendable who is supposed to be dead.
After Stonebanks seriously injures an Caesar (Terry Crews), Barney decides to sever ties with his old crew (in a weird “I want you guys to live, but I won’t say that” move) and find the next generation to go after Stonebanks. Harrison Ford shows up and proves he can still bring major weight to a character as Drummer, a CIA agent in charge of bringing down Stonebanks and pulling the strings for Barney. This is where you can go use the restroom or refill your popcorn because the cameos start to pour in and the plot is littered with holes that you can fill in yourself with a simple “oh they assembled a team”.
Barney teams up with Bonaparte (Kelsey Grammer), a scout of sorts, to find the new team. They go all over the country and world in a matter of movie minutes to find Thorn (Glen Powell) the hacker, weapons specialist Mars (Victor Ortiz), hand to hand combat expert Luna (Ronda Rousey), and soldier with authority issues Smilee (Kellan Lutz). In the midst of the search they run into Galgo (Antonio Banderas) who is quite funny as motor-mouthed Puss in Boots turned human. Once the new team is set they go after and capture Stonebanks, but are imprisoned almost as quickly as they were assembled. Hey, wasn’t there supposed to be an ultra smart tech guy on the team to know that Stonebanks had a GPS tracker on him? Alas, this movie isn’t about plot, it’s about action and blowing things up. So you know the rest. The old team has to rescue the new team.
The first couple of movies were cute, but now it’s getting a little outlandish even by Expendable standards. Snipes proves he still has the moves and comic timing! Banderas proves to be a great addition as well. Outside of them, the new crew is pretty forgettable. In the same way their characters are pawns in Barney’s plot, they’re equally pawns in Stallone’s attempt to get “The Expendables 3” movie made and poster crowded with tons of faces. I’m sure Ronda Rousey could kick my butt as the MMA fighter she is, but as the only woman on the team she was absolutely horrible. I had to turn away from her “acting” plenty of times during the film.
I’ve never watched “The Expendables” franchise in theaters until now, and that’s because I had to write this review. I wish I didn’t have to watch it in the theater because it was too long and if there wasn’t an action or fighting scene it made me look at my watch or phone for an escape. I couldn’t walk away and come back to it, or fall asleep like I do at home. Instead, I fought through the over-the-top nonsense and funny old men jokes to tell you this, “wait for it to come on your TV for free on TBS”. That’s right, I skipped the DVD, but if you want to see it on DVD let it be a dollar Redbox rental. I love seeing my former action favs, but Stallone can we expend “The Expendables” already?
Rating: D