Director: James Wan
Cast: Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese, Ludacris, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham
Certificate: 12
Running Time: 131 minutes
Special Features: Extended Feature / Inside the Fight / Deleted Scenes / Talking Fast / Flying Cars / The Cars of Furious / Race Wars: Fast & Furious 7 / Making of the Fast Ride / Back to the Starting Line / Snatch & Grab / Tower Jumps / See You Again music video
I’ll be honest with you, after the first Fast & Furious I didn’t come back until the sixth but when I did it was with colossal love for the renewed franchise. I don’t think there are many people – critics nor the public – who thought it would speed back into life with such praise and the seventh? Well, they’ve hit the ground running once again.
Fast & Furious 7 doesn’t waste any time in continuing from where the last one finished. We all know that Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw (Blade Runner inspired?) was out for revenge and had started by taking out Han (Sund Kang) in Tokyo and has issued his threat to the rest of the ‘family’, and boy, it sets up with a highly enjoyable scene. The Furious 7 team aren’t just content with Deckard visiting Owen (Luke Evans) in hospital, so after we focus in on a friendly, cheesy, speech about family and their past, the camera begins to pull out and gradually reveals that he’s torn the hospital and a whole host of security guards apart to get there. It’s equally inspired and hilarious.
From here, the film snips between Deckard on his revenge trip around the world to take down Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his family for his comatose brother and the recovery of a special device. As well as the aforementioned Tokyo, we travel between London, Abu Dhabi and the Dominican Republic – as you do – as they try to locate some highly advanced tech called ‘God’s Eye’ which will give them the power to take out the man who’s chasing them, and it’ll get them in the good books of everyone. Of course, the trouble is, they’re also being targeting all the time by Deckard who appears to have endless resources as well and always know were they’ll be next. The man who puts our favourite Fast and Furious folks on this quest is the legendary Kurt Russell; the boy looks good in his cameo as well. He’s actually called Mr. Nobody, which is classic work, and also packs a fine kill-shot which we witness via the method of some funky night vision sunglasses.
For all its tongue-firmly-in-cheek nature, Fast & Furious 7 gives us a real adventure ride and is packed to the brim with astonishing stunts, ladies in their bikinis, men with all the money and a whole host of entertaining escapism. The film also gives an unexpectedly poignant goodbye to the late Paul Walker, who tragically died during the filming process, which gives certain moments a very different perspective. It’s handled sensitively but still easily keeps within the narrative and they’ve done him proud by the finale for sure.
James Wan keeps the pace of the previous and pushes it right to the limit. Somehow they achieve cars parachuting perfectly, Walker’s Brian doing an astonishing stunt out of a bus that’s about to fall off a cliff face (you wonder if it’s the scene from The Italian Job that we never saw), a very expensive car leaping between skyscrapers, Ronda Rousey fighting Michelle Rodriquez, Statham beating the heck out of Dwayne Johnson and…just so much more.
Looking for that perfect popcorn movie with the added addition of huge action and high-speed car chases alongside quick quips? You’ve got it right here, with an immense selection of special features and it’s even got a little dowse of reflective connection. Will you want to go to there? It’s Fast & Furious seventh heaven.
Fast & Furious 7 is available on Blu-ray and DVD on 7 September.
