Top 10 Favorite 'Fast and the Furious' Stunts

The Fast and the Furious franchise is one that needs no introduction. It’s been one of Universal’s most successful franchises, having been around since 2001, and it’s still going strong today. The eighth (yes, eighth!) installment of the series, The Fate of the Furious, hits theaters this weekend and is sure to deliver more of the entertainingly high-octane and goofy action that we’ve come to expect from these films. Thus, in honor of its impending release, I decided to do a Top 10 list of my personal favorite action sequences from this smash hit of a franchise. Though, again, who’d thought that this series would manage to last this long? Not only that, but this series has also somehow managed to get better with each new installment. For the record, yes, they’re completely ridiculous films with action sequences that defy all logic and physics… but they’re also highly entertaining to watch. And, yes, there are those out there who absolutely scoff at these films, questioning why they became so gosh darn successful despite being so silly (looking at you, CinemaSins). But, at the same time, it’s clear that this franchise has one hell of a fanbase. Heck, it’s a fan-base that I myself am a part of, having been a fan of the franchise ever since the fourth installment. Now, with this list, I only have one ground rule that I’m maintaining and that is that I wanted to have at least one stunt from each of the previous 7 films. Because if I didn’t, then this list would’ve most likely been made up almost entirely of sequences from films 5 through 7. So, with that in mind, rev up your V8 engines (complete with NOS boost) and prepare yourselves as we delve into some of the craziest and yet awesome stunts from the Fast and the Furious franchise.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

I’ve got not one, not two, not three, not even four, but five Honorable Mentions to list. What can I say? This franchise knows how to do awesome action sequences. First up, there’s the scene from the climax of the original Fast and the Furious in which Dominic Toretto’s crew tries to hijack a semi-trailer truck but then must deal with the driver’s heavily armed response. Brian O’Connor manages to come in to help them out of this situation but this then leads to him having to blow his cover as an undercover cop when he calls for medical support for an injured member of Dom’s crew. Overall, a solidly tense action set-piece that culminates in that big reveal. Then, from the third film, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, there are the two primary drift races between Sean Boswell and Takashi AKA ‘D.K.’ (Drift King). I’m listing them both instead of just one because both are good in their own unique way. The first is fun because we get to see a clearly inexperienced drifter like Sean go up against a drifting expert like Takashi. Suffice it to say, Sean doesn’t do so well in the race and he ends up decimating his car, which he borrowed from Takashi’s business partner (and, as we learn later, a former member of Dom’s crew), Han Lue. But, by the time the second race rolls around, Sean has become more experienced with drifting. This results in a much more neck and neck battle between him and Takashi as they race on a treacherous mountain track, culminating in Sean beating Takashi to become the new Drift King.

Next up, from film #4, Fast and Furious, there’s the first true ‘street race’ of the film, in which Dom and Brian race through Los Angeles so that they can be recruited to a team that transports heroin across the U.S.-Mexico border for drug lord Arturo Braga, who both are trying to take down. All in all, it’s another solid street race that shakes things up from previous street races by having them drive through traffic, unlike the ones in the first two films where those involved in the races got the streets closed and, therefore, free of any traffic and police. That and this sequence is also minimal in its use of CG compared to previous films, where they primarily used it for shots of the cars’ engines. It’s also quite funny to see Brian argue with his GPS (provided to them for the race) when he ends up going off-course. Finally, from Fast and Furious 6, there’s the big finale in which Dom’s crew pursues Owen Shaw’s crew, who are escaping via plane on a ridiculously long runway. This admittedly long (about 13-15 minutes to be precise) but exciting sequence is full of epic and over-the-top stunts both inside and outside the plane (e.g. when Hobbs launches into the air to knock out one of Shaw’s goons who’s being held down by Dom). And it all culminates in the plane being brought down by Dom’s crew and Dom’s car crashing through the nose of the plane in gloriously ludicrous fashion, as one would expect from this franchise at this point.

And while it isn’t an action sequence, I also want to highlight the ending of Furious 7, namely because of how it serves as a fitting tribute to series star Paul Walker. Of course, as we all know, Walker tragically passed away in a car accident in November 2013, during a break from filming. The filmmakers then reworked the ending so that Brian could be given a proper send-off. Thus, after they defeat Deckard Shaw, Dom and crew decide that it’s time for Brian to retire so that he can be with his family; his girlfriend, and Dom’s sister, Mia, their son Jack, and their incoming second kid. As Dom goes off for a drive, Brian catches up with him and as they go on one last ride together, we cut to a montage of moments from the previous films, all set to ‘See You Again’ by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth and a touching monologue from Dom in which he notes “No matter where you are, whether it's a quarter mile away or half way across the world, you'll always be with me. And you'll always be my brother.” It’s a monologue that’s clearly referring to both Brian O’Connor the character and Paul Walker. Finish with a shot from above of the two driving off in separate directions and you have a guaranteed tear-jerker ending that’s sure to affect any fan of this franchise. And think about this for a moment; this is coming from a franchise that’s primarily known for crazy action sequences and not its writing. It just goes to show that all this talk about ‘family’ that keeps getting brought up throughout the films is an accurate reflection of the great camaraderie of the franchise’s ensemble cast.

10. THE FINAL RACE (THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS)

It’s only fitting that we start this list off with a scene from the original Fast and the Furious from 2001. It was a simpler time back then. Before the physics-defying stunts of its most recent outings, this series started out as a simple street racing franchise… as well as being an unofficial ‘remake’ of Point Break but that’s another story. Anyway, kicking off this list is the final race between Dom and Brian after taking down gang leader Johnny Tran. When Brian catches up to Dom, the two end up in a quarter-mile drag race. This race culminates in an awesome moment in which the two cross a railroad crossing just as a train passes through. Unfortunately, for Dom, he then immediately rams into an oncoming truck, resulting in his trademark 1970 Dodge Charger R/T flipping in the air before crashing. Fortunately, for him, Brian ends up giving him his car so that he can get away from the cops. After all, as noted earlier in the film, Brian did owe him a ‘ten-second car’ after a confrontation with Tran’s gang resulted in Brian’s previous car, which Dom had just won in a street race, being blown up. Like I said before, the simplicity of this action sequence is why it ends up being so memorable. The only thing holding it back, really, is that the slow-motion shots of Dom and Brian in their cars before passing the railroad crossing are a bit too much. However, with that said, the shot of Brian handing his keys over to Dom is one of the most iconic images in the franchise’s history, even after all these years.

9. THE FREEWAY RACE (2 FAST 2 FURIOUS)

Next up, we have a scene from 2 Fast 2 Furious, which admittedly is the weakest entry in the series. This is primarily due to a mediocre plot which culminates in an anti-climactic finale with an equally mediocre villain. Not even this film’s action sequences can save this from being the ‘worst’ in the series. However, there are still some memorable action sequences from this film, like the one chase scene near the end where Brian and company have a bunch of street racers drive out of a garage to distract the police. But, for this list, I’m going with the race that takes place on a crowded Miami freeway. In this scene, Brian and his best friend Roman Pearce race a bunch of other drivers to acquire a package from an impounded car so that they can be recruited by drug lord Carter Verone to be his drivers. In a film where some of the racing sequences were more CG-based, especially compared to the ones in the first film, this one was done practically and features some great stunt work, including one where a car ends up getting crushed when it gets caught in-between two trucks (though, let’s be honest, that car’s driver CLEARLY died in that moment) and another where Brian does a 180-degree turn and drives backwards for a bit. Now, admittedly, he mainly did this just to show off in front of Roman but it’s impressive to note that Paul Walker really did do this stunt himself. And, because of aspects like this, this scene gets a slight edge over the final race from the first film and lands at the Number 9 spot on this list.

8. OPENING HEIST (FAST AND FURIOUS)

2009’s Fast and Furious served as the long-awaited return of the series’ original stars. It was the first time that the series’ main leads (Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, and Michelle Rodriguez), had appeared together in a Fast and Furious film since the original and while it ended up being the worst-reviewed entry in the series, with a mediocre 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, I’d argue it’s rather underrated. Now, admittedly, this is mainly because THIS was the film that got me into the franchise. I remember seeing the film’s Super Bowl ad and was interested in it despite having never seen any of the other films beforehand. I didn’t end up seeing it in theaters but I did watch it when it came to HBO, so yes, this was the first Fast and Furious film I ever watched. But, I’m getting off-track here; aside from being perhaps a bit too serious for a Fast and Furious film, I’d say that this film was like a better-directed version of the first film. It was the second film in the series to be directed by Justin Lin and while the series wouldn’t truly start to shine until the next installment, this one still has its moments. For one thing, it starts off with a pretty epic opening heist in which Dom and his crew, including his girlfriend Letty Ortiz and Han from Tokyo Drift, hijack a large fuel tanker in the Dominican Republic. However, like the truck driver from the climax of the first film, the tanker’s driver soon starts fighting back once he realizes what’s going on. This time around, though, they do manage to steal a good amount of the tanker’s fuel sources and the sequence ends with Dom and Letty narrowly avoiding the tanker as it crashes towards them in a crazy but awesome stunt that was seen in all the trailers, including that Super Bowl ad I mentioned earlier. I guess you could say that thanks to this scene, I officially became a fan of the Fast and the Furious franchise.

7. CHASE THROUGH TOKYO/HAN’S DEATH (THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT)

As we’d come to find out, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, despite being the third film of the series to be released in theaters, was not the third film from a chronological standpoint. Instead, it took place after the events of the following three films; Fast and Furious, Fast Five, and Fast and Furious 6. This explains why Han appears in those films as a member of Dom’s crew despite what happens during this sequence from Tokyo Drift. It all starts when Sean, Han, and company are confronted by Takashi over a theft that Han had pulled on his family, who are tied to the Yakuza. Thanks to a diversion from their friend Twinkie, Sean, Takashi’s ex-girlfriend Neela, and Han manage to escape with Takashi and his sidekick Morimoto right behind them. This leads to a tense but exciting chase through the city. There’s even one point where they must drive through a crowded street, resulting in a pretty nice shot when they drift through the crowd. And while Sean and Neela manage to get rid of Morimoto, who presumably dies after crashing into an oncoming car, Han, unfortunately, ends up being hit by another car after managing to get away from Takashi. Before Sean can save him, the car explodes, bringing a sad end to easily the best character in the film. This scene would later be revisited during the mid-credits scene of Fast and Furious 6, where we learn the identity of the driver who hit Han’s car; none other than Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw, setting up the epic confrontation between him and Dom’s crew in Furious 7.

"Dominic Toretto. You don't know me... you're about to.

6. TRAIN HEIST (FAST FIVE)

After Fast Five opens with a bang as Dom is broken out of a prison bus by Brian, Mia, and their crew (a scene that was teased at the end of Fast and Furious), the film then sets the stage for the first big action sequence set in its main locale, Rio de Janeiro. In this sequence, Dom, Brian, and Mia, along with their old friend Vince (who last appeared in the first film, released a full decade prior), attempt to steal a bunch of cars from a train with the help of some locals. When Dom overhears one of the locals, Zizi, mention that he’s primarily interested in one of the cars, a Ford GT40, he has Mia ride off with it instead. Of course, this then leads to trouble as Dom and Brian must then deal with Zizi and his henchmen. They barely manage to escape, as the scene culminates in an epic stunt in which the two end up driving off a cliff and jump out of their car before it crash-lands into the water below. Unfortunately, for them, this results in two things happening. First off, they are immediately captured and are then confronted by Rio’s primary crime boss, Hernan Reyes. And, as they come to learn, the GT40 contained a computer chip that was full of information regarding Reyes’ criminal empire. But then, because Zizi killed three DEA agents during the heist, this results in DSS agent Luke Hobbs being called in to capture them when they’re framed for the murders. In short, a lot happens in this scene and, fittingly enough, it’s an excellent sequence with great stunt-work and camerawork. You could even say that it began the series’ transition from street racing to action-filled heist plotlines. Either way you look at it, this scene clearly helped when it came to making Fast Five the most critically/commercially successful entry in the series at that time.

5. JUMPING TOWERS IN ABU DHABI (FURIOUS 7)

Yep, can’t forget about this one. During the sequence where his crew attempts to steal a powerful computer device known as the ‘God’s Eye’ from a billionaire in Abu Dhabi to help them find Deckard Shaw, Dom and Brian escape from Deckard Shaw (so… really, no need for that God’s Eye device but hey, this is a Fast and Furious film; who seriously goes into it for the plot?) by driving the fancy new Lykan HyperSport out of the Etihad Towers. And how do they do this? By jumping across the complex’s three towers with the car, of course. What else would they’ve done, take the elevator? In all seriousness, though, this is yet another awesome set-piece. And while some parts of the jump were clearly CG (including CG Paul Walker, even, as this was one of the scenes that required the use of his brothers Cody and Caleb Walker as stand-ins), you’d be surprised to find that there was still quite a bit of practical stunt work involved in filming this scene. Obviously, they didn’t ‘really’ jump the car through the towers, but most of the shots in which they go in and out of them were done practically on a set, highlighting the great efforts of the filmmakers to do as many practical stunts as possible even as this franchise continues to get more and more insane with its set-pieces. After jumping out the first tower (right in the middle of a lavish party), Dom and Brian then crash through the second tower on a floor that’s under construction. They then jump out that tower and crash through the third tower, right in the middle of an art exhibition, before jumping out the car before it falls out the tower and descends to the ground below. And while this does mean that the HyperSport (1 of only 7 in the world) gets totaled, it did see more action in this moment than it did when the billionaire they were stealing from was just keeping it locked up in his penthouse. Dom said it best, “Nothing sadder than locking a beast in a cage”. Too bad we didn’t get to see Brian punch the guy in the face like he said he was going to do. Ah well…

4. DOM VS. HOBBS (FAST FIVE)

At Number 4, we have the only action sequence on this list that doesn’t primarily involve cars. However, it’s still an epic sequence regardless, as it consists of Dom finally going one-on-one with Hobbs when the latter comes in with his team to arrest Dom and his crew. Suffice it to say, this highly-anticipated showdown between Vin Diesel and the Rock lived up to the hype. And as many will agree, the addition of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson to the series’ ensemble cast is arguably the primary catalyst behind the Fast and Furious franchise’s unexpected rise in quality. The smack-talking but still all-around charismatic DSS agent proved to be a great addition to the franchise and the build-up to his confrontation with Dom was well handled by Justin Lin and his team, from his very first scene where he immediately starts preparing to hunt Toretto once his team arrives in Rio (him to Rio’s chief of police: “Stay the f*** out of my way!”) to the scene where he and his team confront Dom and company at a street race but are driven away by the street racing community of Brazil. But when the two finally go toe-to-toe, all bets are off. Over the course of three minutes, the two crash through several glass windows and the fight ultimately ends with Dom nearly bashing Hobbs’ head in with a pipe wrench, a callback to the first film where it was established that Dom nearly beat a man to death with a socket wrench after he had killed Dom’s father during a stock car race. Mia’s pleas for him to stop are what ultimately keep Dom from pulling the same move twice. 

3. DRAGGING A GIANT SAFE THROUGH RIO (FAST FIVE)

In Fast Five’s big climax, Dom, Brian, and their crew pull off their big heist on Hernan Reyes. How so? Well, by having Dom and Brian drag a giant safe containing his money through the city of Rio with their cars, of course. What other option would there be? What follows may arguably be the series’ first truly physics-defying action sequence, as the safe becomes a battering ram, smashing through everything in its path. Not only does it smash through several cars, both police and civilian, but it also smashes through a few buildings as well, including a bank. Han and Roman also help Dom and Brian out by getting rid of some of Rio’s extensive police force in police cars that they themselves stole earlier in the film. This chase through the city ultimately ends up on the bridge leading out of the city, with the police, Reyes, and Zizi in hot pursuit. Realizing that there’s no way that they can outrun them all, Dom has Brian go off without him while he stays behind to deal with their pursuers. And, of course, he gets rid of them with the safe, as multiple cars are launched in the air and into the water below. It all culminates in Dom ramming the safe into one of the two remaining cars before jumping out of his car as it launches into the air due to the safe’s recoil and slams into Zizi’s car, critically injuring Reyes, who is ultimately killed by Hobbs for revenge against the death of his team earlier in the film (Zizi is killed by Brian, who came back to help Dom). But while Hobbs has Dom and Brian leave the safe with him, giving them a 24-hour head start before he goes after them again, he finds that they had switched the real safe with a fake one during the pursuit, allowing them to successfully pull off their big heist.  

2. CARS PARACHUTING OUT OF A PLANE (FURIOUS 7)

When the first trailer for Furious 7 premiered, it immediately gave us our first look at one of the film’s crazy stunts; Dom and crew airdropping their cars out of a plane to ambush a mercenary convoy in the Caucasus Mountains in Azerbaijan to rescue hacker Ramsey. What more can I say? These films continually manage to up the ante with their crazy stunts with each new film and this sequence is no exception. But you know what’s even crazier? A lot of this sequence was done practically. I mentioned this earlier when I talked about the ‘car jumping the towers’ stunt but I wanted to bring it up again because that’s ultimately one of the coolest things about the recent entries in this series. While there are certainly some stunts in these films that implement CG in some way, they still try to do as many practical stunts as possible, no matter how crazy these set-pieces get. And in this instance, they literally sent these cars out of a plane. Obviously, shots of Dom and crew at the wheel were done in front of a blue-screen but, for the most part, those are real cars soaring down from the sky and that’s quite an impressive feat. The ensuing chase is great too, from Dom and Letty ripping the back of the convoy’s large bus off with hooks to Brian climbing out the side window of the bus and running up its side to get back onto the ground before it falls off a cliff. And even after Dom, with Ramsey in tow, is cornered by the mercenaries and their leader, Jakande, they manage to get away by driving backward off the mountain. And even though their car ends up getting totaled on the way down, they survive. Why? Because this is a Fast and the Furious film, of course. These characters are basically superheroes at this point.

(P.S. Also, in one of the best humorous moments of the series, Roman initially backs out from dropping out of the plane, resulting in Tej forcibly dragging him out of it by activating his parachute while he’s still on the plane. If I haven’t mentioned it already, Roman usually gets a lot of the best lines/funny moments in these films and this is easily one of his best.)

1. CARS VS. TANK (FAST AND FURIOUS 6)

For my Number 1 pick, I’m going with a scene from Fast and Furious 6 which, at the time I’m writing this, still stands as my favorite entry in the series to date. Overall, it’s a toss-up between this and Fast Five in terms of being my ‘favorite film’ of the franchise. For now, the sixth film wins out by a slim margin for various reasons. One of these reasons is that it has a stronger villain in the form of Luke Evans’ Owen Shaw, who operates on a mantra where he views his crewmates as expendable, a sheer contrast to Dom’s crew and their familial bond that has been such a definitive element of this franchise. Not only that, but when we first meet his crew, we see that Letty, who supposedly died during the events of Fast and Furious but is revealed to have survived albeit now suffering from amnesia, is working with them. And in the first of the film’s two climactic action sequences (the other being the plane chase), Dom and his crew pursue Shaw’s crew when the latter attempts to steal a computer chip from a NATO base in Spain so that they can build a device that can block all military communication on Earth. However, they soon realize that Shaw is instead gunning for the military convoy that’s transporting the chip away from the base. When they get there, Shaw and his crew have already hijacked the convoy and are now running around in a big tank. As it begins to bulldoze its way through a busy freeway, crushing cars left and right, Tej remarks that they need a Plan B… or Plan C… or Plan D… or Plan E, bottom line, “We need more alphabet!”

I picked this as my favorite action sequence from these films because it basically has it all. The set-up is so simple (cars vs. a tank) and yet so effective, with Dom and crew running around trying to avoid the tank and its gunfire while they do what they do best which, as Brian notes, is to ‘improvise’. At one point, Roman’s car is about to be crushed by the tank, resulting in him having to jump over to Brian’s car, which had gotten over to that location after doing a sick jump off a ramp made of broken pieces of a bridge that the tank destroyed. And then the scene ends with an epically ridiculous stunt. To stop the tank, Dom and crew end up flipping it by sending Roman’s damaged Mustang, which he had tied to the tank with a cable, off a bridge part of the freeway to use as an anchor. However, this results in Letty, who was outside on top of the tank when this happens because Shaw ordered her to deal with the cable, to be sent flying off it. To save her, Dom ends up launching out of his car and catches her in mid-air over a big drop before they crash down onto a car on the other side of the freeway. Is it a ridiculous moment that defies all logic? Yes. Did it elicit a great reaction from the audience when I saw this in theaters? Hell yeah! That’s another reason why Fast and Furious 6 is my favorite entry in the series; it resulted in one of my all-time favorite theater experiences, as I saw it with an enthusiastic crowd who reacted to every major stunt in the film, including this one. It really goes to show how far this series has come, as it’s amassed a large and dedicated fan-base who are always along for the ride and I’m proud to say that I’m one of them.

And those are my Top 10 favorite stunts from the Fast and the Furious franchise. Be sure to sound off in the comments below with your own favorite stunts from these films. And you can expect a review of The Fate of the Furious sometime this weekend. 

2015 Midyear Recap

Well we’re halfway through the year of 2015 and overall I must say that this is shaping up to be one of the absolute best years ever in terms of the films that have come out so far this year. Sure there have obviously been quite a few stinkers, as there are every year, but overall I’d say that so far the good has definitely outweighed the bad. In just half a year, we’ve seen three films deservedly join the billion dollar club; ‘Furious 7’, ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’, and ‘Jurassic World’. Compare that to last year when only one film, ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’, reached that milestone. And while I’ve seen some people say that the Summer Movie Season has been rather disappointing so far, I’d argue that it’s the other way around. This has been one of the better summers of recent memory with a wide variety of great films for audiences to enjoy. Again, that’s better than what we got last year when there was actually a rather lacking amount of family-friendly films. So now it’s time for my annual Midyear Recap where I look back upon every film that I’ve seen so far this year. And for the record, that doesn’t count films that were technically from 2014 but weren’t released until 2015 like ‘Selma’ or ‘American Sniper’. Finally, I just want to note that, aside from my Top 5, I’m not ranking any of these films. Instead I’m just dividing them up into five main categories based on their overall quality. So now, here’s what the 2015 year in film has been like for me so far, from the absolute worst to my current Top 5 favorite films of the year.

WORST OF THE YEAR SO FAR:

50 SHADES OF GREY

Well are you really surprised at this one being my current #1 worst? I mean, who was seriously expecting anything good from this ‘Twilight’ fan-fiction? And really, ‘50 Shades of Grey’ ends up being even worse because as bad as ‘Twilight’ was, there was at least some kind of cool monster-related action from time to time to hold over the non-fans. All this film has is… a whole lot of talking and a bunch of sex scenes. And on that note, for a film based off of a book that became highly controversial for its sex-related content, it is such a toned-down affair and the sex scenes are so flat and dull that the film doesn’t really have any sexual edge. And of course, being a ‘Twilight’ fan-fic, the writing is laughably bad with hilariously awful dialogue and we constantly have put up with the frustrating indecisiveness of the main characters. To her credit, lead actress Dakota Johnson at least tries here and at the end of the day is one of the few bright spots of the film. But as for Jamie Dorman, he isn’t so lucky in the role of, to put it simply, a sociopath. Seriously, what is it about characters like Christian Grey and Edward Cullen that a whole lot of women are attracted to? I don’t know and quite frankly I don’t want to know. ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ is just as bad as you think. At the end of the day, though, it didn’t really piss me off like some of my most hated films of all time like ‘Sucker Punch’ and ‘A Haunted House 2’. Though to be clear, that’s really not saying much.  

  

OTHER STINKERS:

JUPITER ASCENDING

It’s really sad how poorly the Wachowski siblings, the duo behind the groundbreaking ‘Matrix’ trilogy, have fared in recent years in terms of their filmography. Every film that they’ve done since ‘Matrix Revolutions’ has flopped at the box office and that trend continued with ‘Jupiter Ascending’, their first original film since ‘The Matrix’. But while ‘Jupiter Ascending’ has some truly beautiful visuals, the story is a really, really huge mess. As many have already pointed out, the film is mostly just discussions and there’s not as much action compared to other sci-fi films. In my original review, I referred to it as the 2015 equivalent of ‘Attack of the Clones’ and that’s a pretty darn good analogy because that’s pretty much exactly what it is. The main character of Jupiter is a completely useless protagonist who ends up being nothing more than a damsel in distress, despite Mila Kunis’ best efforts with the limited material that she has to work with. Channing Tatum and Sean Bean, the latter of whom doesn’t die for once in a film, fare a little better as the two soldiers who protect her. And then you have Eddie Redmayne as the main villain, who thankfully won an Academy Award this year for his turn in ‘The Theory of Everything’, which will hopefully for the most part offset his potentially Razzie-award winning performance here, where he whispers most of his lines sounding like Voldemort and then randomly yells at certain points. Simply put, ‘Jupiter Ascending’ is a mess; a beautiful-looking mess but a mess nonetheless (and yes, that just rhymed).

UNFRIENDED

Looking back upon ‘Unfriended’, I realize that I admire it more for its execution than as a horror film. The whole film is shot to look like it all takes place on the main character’s computer screen with the main characters interacting through Skype. Execution-wise the film definitely captures the overall feel of being online pretty well, even down to the Skype lag. But as a horror film, it really doesn’t do much that would be considered ‘scary’. All of the main characters are cardboard stereotypes, which in the case of this story is more evident by the fact that they are all basically horrible people who had a hand in the bullying that led to the suicide of one of their classmates. So that would mean that we would root for the killer, right? Well sure, but even then we never really learn who this ‘killer’ is, even though we presume it’s the ‘spirit’ of their dead classmate. There’s some rather enjoyable moments where the ‘killer’ messes with the victims but we never once get a concrete answer as to what’s causing all of this. So overall, as someone who’s not a fan of the horror genre, ‘Unfriended’ is sort of the 2015 equivalent of last year’s ‘Oculus’. Though at the end of the day, if I haven’t already stated this before, I’m willing to give ‘Oculus’ another shot in the future. ‘Unfriended’, on the other hand… not so much.

MEH-FLIX

Basically these are the films that I didn’t necessarily hate but at the same time I wasn’t ‘too big’ on them either. In other words, these are basically the films that I thought were ‘okay’.

PROJECT ALMANAC

Not being a huge fan of ‘found-footage films’ save for 2012’s ‘Chronicle’, mainly because most of them are horror films, I actually was looking forward to ‘Project Almanac’, which instead opted for a time-travel story. It was the first ‘2015’ film that I saw this year and for the most part, I enjoyed it. With that said though, this film is by no means a ‘ground-breaking’ entry in the time-travel genre. And if you start to analyze the film’s story, I have the feeling that you’re bound to find numerous plot-holes. But at the end of the day, I did still enjoy the film quite a bit because it wasn’t trying to be something it’s not. It was just a fun little teen-centered time-travel film with a cast of leads that had excellent camaraderie with one another. Overall, ‘Project Almanac’ is, at the very least, a decently entertaining ‘popcorn’ flick. Just keep that in mind when you’re watching it because, as noted earlier, this has nothing on films like ‘Back to the Future’.

THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE OUT OF WATER

As someone who grew up with the ‘SpongeBob’ franchise, I was hoping that the new film would at least improve upon some of the show’s recent shortcomings (e.g. the post-‘first film’ era). And for the most part, this film does succeed in doing just that. With that said, though, occasionally there are instances where it does do some of the things that have made the show mediocre in recent years, mostly by way of shockingly heartless actions of some of the main characters. And overall the film’s story is fairly scatter-brained. The whole concept of SpongeBob and the gang going up to the surface and becoming superheroes, which was the primary selling point of the advertising, doesn’t occur until the finale. While that does mean that the film maintains the show’s classic 2-D style for most of the run-time, which is a nice little alternative to the computer-animated films of today, if you watched the trailers for the film, you’ve pretty much already watched all of the ‘superhero’-related sequences. And while it’s clear that Antonio Banderas is at least having fun in the role of the main villain Burger-Beard, at the end of the day he’s not really that much of a threat. So in short, I don’t ‘hate’ the new ‘SpongeBob’ film and I think that at the very least it’s definitely better than anything we’ve seen from the show since 2004. But at the end of the day, I’d recommend you stick with the first ‘SpongeBob’ film, which is by far the better film… so good that it surprisingly led to what is currently my most popular review of all time with over 500 views in about just four months.

WORTHWHILES

Now we’re finally starting to get into the good stuff…

CHAPPIE

Contrary to the critical reception of the film, I surprisingly actually enjoyed director Neill Blomkamp’s third feature film, ‘Chappie’. I actually liked it more the first time around than I did with his last film ‘Elysium’. Sharlto Copley shines in the role of Chappie, a robot who’s basically like Johnny 5 from ‘Short Circuit’ if Johnny 5 was raised by the wrong people and became a gangsta. Action sequences are solid and the motion-capture visual work for the character of Chappie is pretty darn solid as well. With that said, though, Chappie is basically the only major character in the film who gets any major character development. Everyone else, especially the ‘villains’ played by Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver, both of whom are generally wasted here, isn’t as lucky. And to be honest, there’s not really any major ‘likable’ characters in this film. Then you have the South African rap-rave group Die Antwoord, who play the roles of Chappie’s surrogate parents. I don’t think they’re ‘terrible’ here, as Yolandi Visser at the very least makes up for it with her character’s motherly attitude towards Chappie. Ninja, on the other hand, is a bit of an asshole. Admittedly my positive thoughts on this film are definitely subject to change upon re-watch, but I actually kind of liked ‘Chappie’ and I do hope that this and the generally polarizing reaction towards ‘Elysium’ doesn’t turn Blomkamp into a ‘one-hit wonder’ in the eyes of the film industry.

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

Oh boy… I realize that I’m going to get some major flack for this from quite a lot of film films but please hear me out on this first. ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ has pretty much been the most critically acclaimed film of the year so far, not just in regards to this year’s summer movie season. But as for me… I never bought into the hype and I hate to say it… but I feel that the film itself is a tad bit overrated. It may just be because I never saw any of the other ‘Mad Max’ films before but I just didn’t get why this film was being treated by most film fans as the equivalent of the second coming of Christ. Now let me be clear, I don’t hate the film. The action sequences, which were pre-dominantly done practically and not just done with CGI, were impressive. That and the film is pure eye candy which is mainly due to its production design. Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult both shine in the roles of Furiosa and Nux… and that’s about as positive as I can be towards this film because at the end of the day, it’s really just one big chase scene and nothing else, with little to no character development for any character that is not Furiosa or Nux. Also, for a film called ‘Mad Max’, Tom Hardy is severely underused in the title role. He’s just dragged into the whole situation, one which he had nothing to do with in the first place. At the end of the day, Furiosa is the main character whereas Max is kind of irrelevant to the overall story.

Again, let me be clear: I don’t hate this film. I recognize its biggest strengths, namely the action sequences and Charlize Theron’s stand-out performance in what is clearly the lead role of the entire film. This is by no means a ‘bad’ film; far from it, in fact. It’s just that I’m not a part of the ‘bandwagon’ that is constantly showering this film with praise 24/7. Maybe it’s just that I went into this film rather unprepared, having not seen any ‘Mad Max’ films prior to this. But according to a lot of people online, you don’t have to have seen any of the previous films. At the end of the day, though, this film just didn’t blow me away as it did for, let’s be honest, the majority of film fans on the internet. I’m sorry if I pissed off anyone who is a big fan of the film as that wasn’t my intention. It’s just that I just don’t see why this is the absolute ‘best film of the year’ or ‘best film of the summer’ for that matter. If it is your favorite film of the year so far, then the more power to you. Just remember that film is subjective and not everyone is going to love the same thing… okay, in this case, almost everyone loves ‘Mad Max’. But as for me, this is not a film that I’ll be going ‘to Valhalla’ over.   

TED 2

Everyone’s favorite ‘Thunder Buddies’ return for what is surprisingly a pretty solid comedy sequel. I say ‘surprisingly’ because as we all know, most comedy sequels do not live up to the original film and the first ‘Ted’ was definitely a fairly tough act to follow. But ‘Ted 2’ actually does manage to be almost as funny as the first ‘Ted’ and ultimately that is due to the great comedy duo of John and Ted. Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane’s camaraderie shines just as much as it did in the first film and it’s just fun to see these two, one of whom is a talking teddy bear, go on all sorts of misadventures. Like its predecessor and MacFarlane’s famous show ‘Family Guy’, obviously ‘Ted 2’ is not for everyone. If you’re not a fan of MacFarlane’s style of humor (e.g. hard-hitting, crude, potentially offensive for certain people), then you’d be much better off with a different film. But as someone who did like the first ‘Ted’ and was a fan of the first few seasons of ‘Family Guy’, I had a really fun time watching ‘Ted 2’ and following along with these two knuckleheads on their quest to prove that Ted is as much of a person as everyone else. Does it have some of the problems of last year’s misfire ‘A Million Ways to Die in the West’? Yes, namely some ‘dead air’ moments and for being a bit too overlong. But thanks to the duo of John and Ted, ‘Ted 2’ actually manages to be much more consistent with its humor hence why it’s ultimately one of the better comedy sequels to have come out over the years.

SPY

Director Paul Feig and star Melissa McCarthy went into this with a bit of a chip on both of their shoulders as both have been receiving a lot of negative attention for some of their recent career moves, namely an upcoming female-led ‘Ghostbusters’ film that the two of them are working on. But if this film proves anything, it’s that this new ‘Ghostbusters’ couldn’t be in better hands. Definitely the funniest comedy so far this summer, ‘Spy’ surprisingly also works fairly well as a spy film, namely through its actually pretty well shot action sequences. I’d seriously would love to see Paul Feig do a Bond film in the future based on his work on this film alone. Anyway, McCarthy definitely shines in the lead role with her charm and likability, and the character is also a really solid female lead that defies all expectations to become a pretty badass spy. The film also benefits from some other standouts in the cast, including Jason Statham as a fellow FBI agent who constantly talks about how awesome he is, Rose Byrne as one of the main villains who once again shows that she’s at her best in comedic roles, and Miranda Hart in a breakout turn as the best friend of McCarthy’s character. The film takes a little bit to get going in terms of its humor but once it does, it’s definitely one of the best comedies so far this year and shows that Feig and McCarthy are at their best when working together.

FURIOUS 7

I’ll admit it… I cried at the end of ‘Furious 7’, the final film for one of the series’ mainstays, the late Paul Walker. The tribute to Walker at the end is well-done and preserves the legacy of the actor’s involvement with the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise. As for the film itself, ‘Furious 7’ continues the franchise’s surprising resurgence even now at seven films in, a point where most film franchises would face an incredibly severe drop in quality. Justin Lin did not direct this entry and while he did a better job as far as the action is concerned, newcomer James Wan does a solid-enough job in his place. Sure the plot is jumbled as hell and the main villain (played by Jason Statham) is a bit underused (his frequent appearances actually make the MacGuffin of the film irrelevant), but at this point who goes into a ‘Fast and Furious’ film expecting Oscar-worthy writing? This film delivers exactly what you’d expect from the series; insane stunts that defy all physics and logic and the strong camaraderie of the series’ ensemble cast. It’ll be interesting to see how this series will continue in the wake of Paul Walker’s death but at the moment, ‘Furious 7’ continues the series’ solid post-2011 run, something that I’m for certain that no one expected from a franchise that was originally just about street racing.

ENTOURAGE

I think it’s safe to say that ‘Entourage’ was one of HBO’s biggest shows during its run in the 2000s. But when the film was coming out, I found that there was a lot of surprisingly heavy vitriol against it by a lot of people on the internet. Maybe it’s because it, like the series, can be a little misogynistic at times through the fact that it mainly revolves around a group of guys and most of the women in the film are mostly ‘sex objects’. But despite that, I’m just going to say it… I had a blast watching this film, hell more so than ‘Mad Max’ (yeah, I said it). This was a film that I was actually really looking forward to when the first trailer came out, so much so that when I got a free 1-month subscription for the new HBO streaming service HBO Now, I binge-watched about 2 and a quarter seasons of the show in preparation for the film. And while that does mean that I haven’t watched the entire show, that doesn’t mean that the film is completely inaccessible to general newcomers of the series. Still, I would recommend at least watching a few episodes first before seeing the film just so that you can be familiar with the world and the characters. All in all, ‘Entourage’ was a really fun, and pretty funny, film that is meant to be seen with a crowd and, more importantly, your own ‘Entourage’.

JURASSIC WORLD

‘Jurassic World’ is by no means the smartest sci-fi film ever written. But really, what do you expect from a series that is all about scientists recreating dinosaurs through animal DNA? ‘Jurassic World’ is just a super fun and entertaining summer blockbuster and those are exactly the kind of films that I love to watch. It may not be the absolute best film of the year but it does its job in delivering exactly what we want; awesome dinosaur-related action with quite frankly some of the most epic deaths in franchise history. ‘Jurassic World’ also succeeds through its subtle homages to the original ‘Jurassic Park’, and while it may not be ‘as good’ as the original film, it at least manages to recapture a good enough amount of the awe and wonder of that film and repackage it for a new generation. Like with every entry in the series, yes even the first in some cases, there are quite a few underdeveloped characters, including a so-called ‘human’ villain played by Vincent D’Onofrio that doesn’t actually do anything ‘villainous’, which is a bit disappointing given D’Onofrio’s recent turn as Wilson Fisk in ‘Daredevil’. But despite that, the four main leads are pretty darn solid. That includes Chris Pratt, who once again proves himself to be one of the best new leading men in Hollywood, Bryce Dallas Howard, whose character ends up being a pretty badass female lead despite her initial seemingly stiff demeanor and the strange backlash towards the decision to have her wear heels the whole time (one of the most trivial film complaints of all time, which given the internet is saying something), and Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson as a pair of brothers who end up in the midst of all of the chaos. I’m happy to see that this film is doing so well at the box office, more so than anyone expected. This truly is an ‘event’ movie in the veins of films like ‘The Avengers’ and ‘Harry Potter’.

TOP 5

5. KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE

Starting with ‘Casino Royale’, the James Bond franchise has moved away from its more campy and over-the-top past installments. Director Matthew Vaughn’s ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ is basically the modern-day old-school Bond film with its incredibly over-the-top and insane action sequences and its self-aware tone. And the end result is one of the slickest action films of the year, with stand-out sequences including the all-out brawl in a church and one of the most epic explosion sequences of all-time. Sure the violence get a bit brutal at times and the final shot of the film, though I do understand the homage Vaughn went for, goes just a bit too far but overall the film still succeeds in capturing the feel of the old-school Bond films of the pre-‘Casino Royale’ era pretty damn well. And to top it all off, the film has a dynamite ensemble cast with the biggest standouts being Colin Firth, in his first major leading role in an action film, and Taron Egerton, one of 2015’s biggest newcomers who manages to hold his own against not just Firth but other acting heavyweights like Michael Caine and Samuel L. Jackson. ‘Kingsman’ is just straight-up fun, once again showcasing Vaughn’s talents as a director, hence why he’s easily one of the best directors working today.

4. THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

Marvel Studios’ fantastic run with the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues with the second ‘Avengers’ film, ‘Age of Ultron’. Now is it as good as the first film? Well, to be honest, not really but I don’t hold that against the film. Instead, ‘Age of Ultron’ succeeds at being another truly epic superhero flick from Marvel Studios featuring Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The stakes may be higher than they were in the first ‘Avengers’ but director Joss Whedon still gives the film the same style of humor and fun that the entire MCU has been known for, which is why I heavily prefer Marvel films over the ‘way too f***ing dark’ DC films. Ultron, played by the badass James Spader, is another excellent MCU villain, primarily due to the fact that he’s actually a much funnier villain than I think we all were expecting. The new additions to the cast (Scarlet Witch, the second major on-screen iteration of Quicksilver in two years, and of course Vision) are great and, yes, I liked the whole ‘Black Widow-Hulk’ romance that has been a major source of controversy amongst feminists to the point where many people online even sent Whedon death threats (sigh). Now I’ve seen many people say that the film is a bit overcrowded given all of the characters that are in it. And while it’s true that there are quite a lot of characters in this film to keep track of, I don’t think it’s as big of an issue as people say because A.) like the first ‘Avengers’, Whedon manages to balance out these roles pretty well and B.) as we all know, the MCU has already established many of these characters, which is a much smarter move than just cramming them all into one film without previously introducing them first in other films (I’m looking at you, ‘Batman v. Superman’). So in short, while I can’t say that ‘Age of Ultron’ is the absolutely ‘best’ installment of the MCU, it’s still a top-tier entry in this great franchise.

3. INSIDE OUT

As I stated in my original review for this film, I’m not one of those people who feel that Pixar went downhill after ‘Toy Story 3’. Sure, their next three films were nowhere near their best work but they had their own unique good qualities to them that at least made them enjoyable for kids (though I’d argue ‘Monsters University’ is actually quite underrated). But of course, when it comes to Pixar, many expect their films to appeal to both kids and adults, in the case of the latter due to their strong writing and great characters. And that is why ‘Inside Out’ is the best Pixar film since ‘Toy Story 3’. Of course like with any Pixar film, the animation is superb and it produces lots of colorful and imaginative imagery. The film’s voice cast is perfect and there’s definitely a lot of funny moments/dialogue throughout. But the film also succeeds with its execution of its creative premise, effectively capturing life experiences that all of us can relate to in some way, like moving to a new city and being the new kid at school. And let me tell you, if you don’t get teary-eyed at least once during this film, then there may be something wrong with you. ‘Inside Out’ is easily not only the best animated film of the year so far, but also one of the best films so far this year period. After some arguable missteps, Pixar finally delivers another home run to go alongside their many other animated classics.

2. TOMORROWLAND

Nothing saddens me more this year than the fact that this film has been a serious under-performer at the box office, having just recently only making its budget back. It probably has something to do with the fact that critics weren’t as kind towards it either. But this is one case where I seriously disagree with the critical reception for a film. Under the excellent direction of Brad Bird, ‘Tomorrowland’ is a bold, imaginative, and most of all inspiring original story that above all else promotes the one thing that I feel that has been severely lacking in today’s society; hope. This film is for those who ‘dare to dream’, who ‘never give up’. And it does this all without being preachy. Sure, some critics have accused the film of being just that, preachy, but if you ask me that just makes the message even stronger by showcasing how cynical our society has gotten in the last few years. Now the big point of controversy about this film is in regards to this ending and, without giving anything major away, while I’m not saying that it is a ‘great’ ending, at the same time I really don’t see why it’s ‘as bad’ as some people are putting it out to be. With amazing visuals (made even more impressive on IMAX screens), a terrific cast highlighted by Britt Robertson and Raffey Cassidy as two of the absolute best on-screen heroines of the year (even better than everyone's favorite's, Furiosa), and above all else a good old-fashioned sense of fun and adventure, ‘Tomorrowland’ seriously deserves much greater attention than what it’s currently getting. Hopefully it ends up the same way as Bird’s first film, ‘The Iron Giant’, in that it ends up getting the acclaim it deserves down the road despite its less-than-stellar debut.  

1. CINDERELLA

Yes folks, my Top 4 films of the year so far were all released by Disney (that includes ‘Age of Ultron’ due to Disney owning Marvel). And I don’t care if that makes me look like a big Disney fan boy. Disney’s just been having a phenomenal year… well, considering the box-office performance of ‘Tomorrowland’, I say that more in regards to the quality of their films to be precise. And right now, my favorite film of 2015 so far is Kenneth Branagh’s new take on the classic story of ‘Cinderella’, previously brought to the big screen by Disney in 1950. This is one of the most beautiful films that I’ve seen in my entire life, both inside and out. The film’s visual look and production/costume design are superb and will hopefully attract some awards attention later this year. But the film, like ‘Tomorrowland’, also succeeds because of its heart and strong messages, which in this case are to ‘have courage and be kind’ and that true beauty is on the inside. Just like how ‘Tomorrowland’s message rings true about today’s society, the messages in ‘Cinderella’ are damn good life lessons to live by in the cynical world that we live in today.

And despite what some feminists on the internet may claim (which, if you haven’t already noticed from some of the things I pointed out earlier in this post, is becoming quite a running trend this year given the backlash towards other films like ‘Age of Ultron’ and ‘Jurassic World’), this version of Cinderella (portrayed perfectly by Lily James) is a phenomenal female lead. Her courage, her control over her own destiny, and her sweet persona shine through against the arguments that she’s just a ‘passive’ protagonist who just gets rescued at the end by the Prince. And on that note, the other great thing about this film is that while it may primarily be a re-telling of the original Disney animated film, it does just enough to feel different while also improving on many of the now dated elements of that film. Whereas I was incredibly saddened by the box-office failure and middling critical reception of ‘Tomorrowland’, I was so happy to see this film do well with both critics and audiences. This new ‘Cinderella’ truly is one of the best films that I’ve seen in quite a long time and while I’ve seen quite a few cynics complain about Disney’s upcoming lineup of live-action adaptations of their classic animated films, this film, if anything, proves that they can be good.

So that’s what 2015 has been like for me so far. We still got plenty more films on the way so stay tuned to see if any of these current Top 5 films will end up in my end-of-the-year Top 12 list.

Furious 7 (2015) review

In some ways, it’s still hard to believe that the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise has now been going on for more than a decade. At first, it was just a simple street-racing franchise that, while consistently commercially successful, never were big hits with critics. But then, to everyone’s surprise, it suddenly became one of the biggest film franchises in recent years. Having not been a ‘fan’ of the series in its early years, the fourth film, 2009’s ‘Fast and Furious’, was the one that first got me interested in the series, even though in retrospect I realize I’m kind of in the minority when it comes to liking that film. Ultimately though, the series really started to shine with the fifth entry, 2011’s ‘Fast Five’, the first entry in the series to, to everyone’s surprise, do really well with critics. There were many reasons for this upgrade in quality. There was the return of many of the series’ former leads, resulting in the series’ first true ‘ensemble’ cast. There was the overall shift in regards to the series’ plots from street-racing to heists. And of course, there was the very welcome addition of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in the role of DSS agent Luke Hobbs. Just like that, the franchise became relevant again, soon followed by an equally awesome, and arguably better, follow-up in 2013 in the form of ‘Fast and Furious 6’, the first entry in the series that I was genuinely looking forward to. There’s no better way to say it; those last three movies made me a ‘F&F’ fan.

Now Dom and his crew (or, to use a more proper term, ‘family’) are back for the seventh entry (yes, seventh) of the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise, ‘Furious 7’. This time, however, the film is under a different director (a first since 2003’s ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’). James Wan, who has mainly been known for his work on horror films like ‘Saw’, ‘Insidious’, and ‘The Conjuring’, takes over directing duties from Justin Lin, who had directed every entry of the series since 2006’s ‘Tokyo Drift’, for this new film. But of course, as we all know, that isn’t the biggest headline surrounding the film. Sadly, a more tragic one is. On November 30, 2013, while on break from shooting the film, series lead Paul Walker was killed in a single-car accident. Filming was only half-done at the time of his death so the production was temporarily put on hold so that the filmmakers could figure out a way to finish the film without Walker. As a result, ‘Furious 7’ now serves as not only a tribute to one of the series’ biggest stars, but also as the final film for Walker’s character Brian O’Connor. Needless to say, the film really delivers on representing Walker’s legacy with the franchise. But of course, this is also a ‘Fast and Furious’ movie and even with the change in directors, ‘Furious 7’ still succeeds in being a dumb and over-the-top but ultimately fun as hell action film that knows exactly what it is and doesn’t try to be something it’s not.

At the end of ‘Fast and Furious 6’, former street racer/criminal Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew; Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker), Dom’s sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), Dom’s girlfriend Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), Tej Parker (Ludacris), and Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) had finally returned home to the States after helping DSS agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) take down Owen Shaw and his crew in London. However, not long after, they soon find themselves being hunted by Shaw’s older brother Deckard (Jason Statham), who seeks revenge against Dom and co. for what they did to his brother. As it was revealed in the post-credits scene for ‘Furious 6’, Deckard was the one responsible for the death of Han (Sung Kang) in ‘Tokyo Drift’ which, for those who are new to the franchise, is actually this new film’s immediate predecessor being that it takes place after the events of the fourth, fifth, and sixth films. He follows that up by injuring Hobbs and nearly killing Dom, Mia, and Brian when their house is destroyed by a bomb. Not wanting to have to deal with another funeral for one of their family members, Dom and his crew team up with the government, specifically agent ‘Mr. Nobody’ (Kurt Russell), to find a computer program known as ‘God’s Eye’, developed by hacker Megan Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), that would allow them to track anyone on Earth through digital devices. In return, the gov’t will allow Dom and the crew to use it to track down Shaw.

I mean, at this point, you should definitely know what you’re getting yourselves into when you watch these movies; this is the seventh entry in the franchise after all. You don’t watch them for the plot, that’s for sure. In fact, the MacGuffin they’re after in this film is actually unnecessary to their goal (I’ll explain why in a little bit). But of course, that’s not what these movies are all about. By now, the filmmakers have become very much aware of what these movies are; dumb fun, and they just roll with it. ‘Furious 7’ is no exception. Despite the fact that he’s not really as experienced in regards to directing action compared to someone like Justin Lin, James Wan does a really good job for his first major action film. The action sequences are just as crazy and physics/logic-defying as ever. This is a film where cars drop out of a plane, one super-fancy and super-rare car jumps between skyscrapers, and the characters constantly find themselves doing death-defying stunts. Of course, pretty much all of these stunts would be implausible in real life but who cares? And like I said before, at this point who even cares about the plot? It just serves as a way for Dom and crew to keep doing these awesome stunts. But even with the minimalist plot, one common theme that has basically been the defining trait of the whole franchise since the very beginning is the concept of family, which is even more relevant in this one given the death of Walker.

Without spoiling anything major, he is given a really fitting and touching send-off that is guaranteed to make even the toughest folks cry. The camaraderie amongst the main leads, from Walker to Diesel to Rodriguez to Johnson (by the way, some fans may be a little disappointed to know that Hobbs’ role in this film is much more diminished then it was in 5 and 6 given that he’s taken out of commission early on by Shaw for most of the film) to Gibson to Ludacris and so on and so on. And in my opinion, this is the greatest strength of the franchise; the fact that the relationships between the main characters feels very much genuine. Like with the last film, this entry also benefits from some fun additions to the cast, from Russell to Emmanuel to Djimon Hounsou, the latter of whom plays a mercenary who Dom and crew keep running into. As the main villain, Statham definitely brings the right intimidating presence in the role but ultimately he’s rather underused in some cases. Remember that whole thing I said earlier about the whole MacGuffin of the film being unnecessary? Well that’s because Shaw literally shows up for every major set piece in the film. So really Dom and crew didn’t even need that program to find Shaw because he always manages to find them first. He may be the older brother of Owen Shaw, but in the end the younger brother is still the best ‘F&F’ villain to date.

‘Furious 7’ probably won’t convert over anyone who isn’t a fan of the franchise. Like its predecessors, it’s over-the-top, stupid, and full of logic-bending, physics-messing, and death-defying stunts. But that’s why they’re so damn entertaining to watch and ‘Furious 7’ is once again proof of that. Yeah the plot is pretty weak, with the whole MacGuffin that the team is looking for being ultimately pointless in the grand scheme of things, but as I’ve said plenty of times in this review, who seriously goes into a film like this looking for top-quality writing? ‘Furious 7’ is just loads of fun while also maintaining the strengths of the most recent entries of the franchise, namely the great camaraderie of its cast and perhaps most importantly its keen sense of fun. I’ll admit that part of me kind of misses Justin Lin’s presence behind the camera but overall James Wan does do a really solid job for what was his first major foray into the action genre. And of course, I guarantee you that you’re going to be crying when this film ends as the characters, the franchise, and ultimately all of us say goodbye to Paul Walker. Regardless of what you thought of him as an actor, it’s clear that he was, above all else, a good man and he will be sorely missed. ‘Furious 7’ not only succeeds at being what the ‘Fast and Furious’ movies have become in the last few years but by also serving as a touching tribute to Walker’s legacy.

Rating: 4/5

#ForPaul