So Furious 7 is a big, dumb movie and it knows it. So no harm, no foul there. The 7th Fast and Furious movie follows after part 6 and part 3 due to the scrambled time-line of a series about cars with fast engines and men with meat brains. And, hell, why not? It’s fun. It’s not particularly smart but the director can put together some decent action, the movie certainly doesn’t pretend it’s anything but a superhero movie with cars, so you can’t judge the flick for believability or logic. Or the number of times good guys can survive rolling a car, falling off cliffs, etc.

This movie introduces the new villain Jason Statham as the big brother of the bad guy from the last movie who i have long since forgotten about. But Statham gets a pretty cool introduction that opens the movie and it was a weird brand of subtle that set the tone and gave me some hope. I just kind of wish the movie had been more about him and his revenge against the heroes of the film for putting his brother in the hospital.

Instead, the movie gets distracted by shiny objects and introduces a James Bondian plot that barely has anything to do with the fact Statham’s character is out for bloody revenge. He shows up pretty much any time he wants… thus negating the reason the good guys are on the hunt for whatever magical mcguffin their after (if they get it, the government will help them find Statham… who is always kind of there anyway… oh stop thinking about it! Look! Statham and Vin Diesel are fighting with automobile-derived swords!!)

Now, there was one bit of suspense in the film and is related to poor dead Paul Walker. He’s in the movie and sometimes you can play the “is that Paul Walker or a stunt double” game but generally they did a great job of hiding the fact he wasn’t always alive for his scenes. But the suspense – the legit surprise actually helped the movie. Was his character going to die or would he drive off into the sunset with Jordana Brewster and their son?

I won’t say what they decided to do other than it added probably the only legitimately complex emotion this series has ever had (except maybe possibly some stuff in the first one). It is a touching send-off and I approve this end scene. Thumbs up guys, you done good.

Dwayne Johnson wasn’t in it enough and neither was Ronda Rousey (the MMA fighter). That said, they did bring in a new member of the crew and I was surprised to see her… Nathalie Emmanuel… who? Missendie from Game of Thrones. It was nice to see her in a roll where she didn’t just have her head down in between occasionally lines with Danaerys Targaryen. Also, hey, Kurt Russell was in here too… I’d forgotten they hired him on. He was fun even though he looked like Kurt Russel’s grandpa and that made me feel old. 🙂

Gosh… I think this movie is becoming The Expendables. Or The Avengers. With cars.

So, yeah, you know if you’re going to go see this flick. I guess if you were waiting on good reviews, it’s getting them. I think critics have finally just given up and accepted the silliness. Probably wise – though it does help the film is well shot and has given up on its desire to be taken seriously (something to be said for being honest, I guess).

Score: 82