Furious 7
If these films weren’t already a bit like The Avengers then this one really pushes it over the line into superhero territory. The Rock watching The Hulk on TV at the start of the film was some A+ level foreshadowing.
OK so he doesn’t turn into a green monster, but the god-like level of strength on display here from everyone is remarkable. Remarkably stupid perhaps.
I won’t prattle on about The Rock for too long because he’s not actually in much of this film, but there’s an exchange at the end that made me laugh:
Michelle Rodriguez: Did you bring the cavalry?
The Rock: Woman, I am the calvary.
Why they kept that in I don’t know. Perhaps Dwayne doesn’t like second takes. Or The Rock has become so gargantuan in size that he is actually stating that Jesus was crucified atop his huge chest.
As teased in Fast & Furious 61 this one features Jason Statham, who turns out to be Luke Evans’ (the last villain) brother, seeking revenge and leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. As a villain he never quite amounts to much because the script is so laden with other shit it has to deal with. However he is given a good opener, where he’s visiting his brother in hospital, and as he leaves we see all the chaos he’s caused just to get to the room.
Nathalie Emmanuel is also in this as a hot hacker girl, criminally underwritten and treated like eye candy for most of the film, and a tedious keyboard clacker when she isn’t.
Most of the ‘family’ are back and by now the awkwardness between them has calmed down a lot. The sad part is Tyrese, who in 2 Fast 2 Furious2 had quite an interesting role and now is just irritating comic relief.
The story’s a mess, there’s crazy stunts and Kurt Russell and flying cars and boom boom stuff but presumably everyone is going to remember this one as the one where Paul Walker died while they were making the film (not on set, it should be said). The effects work to finish his scenes looks pretty good and where it could have been a ghoulish (or as the Rock might say, goulash) attempt to make a film from nothing, it’s actually quite a touching tribute to him.
He’s been in 6 of these now, all wildly successful, 5 of them alongside Vin Diesel. So while the closing scenes are a bit of schmaltz you can’t say it’s not earned. Paul’s character always drives Japanese imports which means right-hand-drive - this makes for a nice ending where on their final drive together, Vin and Paul are side by side, shoulder to shoulder. It’s also a nice touch not to have killed him off in the film, because it’s the one place you get to live forever.