Directed by:
James WanComposer:
Brian TylerCast:
Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Dwayne Johnson, Kurt Russell, Tony Jaa, Djimon Hounsou (more)VOD (3)
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Vengeance hits home in Fast & Furious 7 as Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson lead an all-star cast across the globe in their most gravity-defying and emotional adventure yet. Targeted by a cold-blooded black ops assassin with a score to settle (Jason Statham), their only hope is to get behind the wheel again and secure an ingenious prototype tracking device. Facing their greatest threat yet in places as far away as Abu Dhabi and as familiar as the Los Angeles streets they call home, the crew must come together once again as a team, and as a family, to protect their own. (Universal Pictures UK)
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Reviews (13)
The only franchise that goes up in quality from episode to episode, not down. This is a Band-Aid for Expendables 3 for me, because the number of familiar faces gathered here is mind-boggling. The 250 million budget is evident in every shot, which are goosebumps-inducing thanks to James Wan's craftsmanship. The highlights for me are definitely the car jump through the Abu Dhabi building and the car drop from the plane, these are scenes we haven't had the chance to see anywhere else yet. Of course, the well shot fights were a delight, surprisingly I liked Tony Jaa vs Paul Walker and Ronda Rousey vs Michelle Rodríguez fights the most (I've never seen a better female fight in my life), but even Jason Statham and The Rock and Vin Diesel gave each other some decent punches. There's also great humour provided by Tyrese Gibson, who is excellent as always, and there's no shortage of hot asses, spicy cars and decent music. My only complaint is the finale, which doesn't come as much of a surprise given the events throughout the film. Not counting Asia, this is the best American action film available. The farewell to Paul Walker was cute. 95%.
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Those magnificent men in their flying machines. The following review is packed with spoilers and is somewhat misleading, given that I have never once seen this film in a “normal” cinema (the first time in IMAX, where the film is bigger, louder and not very clear, and the second time in 4DX, which gives new meaning to the term “cinema of attractions” and thanks to which the film is clearer, as you orient yourself in the space not only by sound and abrupt cuts, but also based on your own movement). Furious 7 aroused in me a mixture of fascination and disgust at its masculine bombast. All of the women in the film boundlessly admire “their” perfect men, who represent an essential condition for their career growth (Elena and Hobbs), family happiness (Mia and Brian) or finding their own identity (Letty and Dom). The men make all of the decisions and advise the women on what they should do to achieve contentment. The women obey them and are willing to die for them. The female characters are either confused and indecisive (Letty), reconciled to the role of wife and mother (Mia), somewhat hysterical (Ramsey) or aggressively masculine (Kara). Beautiful female bodies are exhibited as objects to be admired, which is most apparent in the case of Ramsey, who in the climax is transformed into a “hot potato”, i.e. bait for the bad guys (in the interest of objectivity, however, it is necessary to add that her hacking skills are also necessary for the execution of the plan). ___ The film’s creators don’t subvert the basic division of gender roles, as they still make it quite clear that they know how to create a surreal universe and spend the whole time treading the line between cool action badassery for real men, in which close-ups of perfectly shaped female derrieres serve solely for the pleasure of the male eye, and a self-aware parody of genre conventions, in which a slow-motion shot of a sexy female hacker emerging from the waves is followed by commentary on male voyeurism and “womanising”. In comparison with the previous films in the franchise, there is more of everything: scenes in which the film reflects (at least in the dialogue) the stupidity of the crew’s plans; the application of the “logic” that if using force is not an option, then use even more force; the childish joy of destroying precious things; superhuman strength; the indestructibility and endurance of the characters (breaking a cast by flexing biceps will be the scene of the year); product placement (a bucket full Coronas on ice); stylistic excesses (the clash between Statham and Diesel is like a duel between Olympian gods); and the hackneyed nature of the archetypes that the film works with (the alpha male, the sexy hacker). Furious 7 thus puts you in the position of someone who doesn’t understand the exaggeration if you don’t ridicule the film’s silliness. ___ For understandable reasons, the film loses its sense of detached humour in most of the non-action scenes with Paul Walker. However, they are also thought-provoking in the context of masculine melodrama (see westerns and the films of Jean-Pierre Melville and John Woo), placing heterosexual male interpersonal bonds at least on the same level as the love of a woman. The narrative structure is particularly problematic, though not in an inspiring way. Statham wants to take down the gang around Dom from the start, yet the plot is built on the team’s efforts to track down and capture the main villain. Mr. Nobody’s isn’t of much help in the end, except to delay the final destruction of L.A. and give Kurt Russell the opportunity to shoot with both hands. The positive characters don’t even manage to catch Statham off guard, which is apparently what Mr. Nobody was supposed to help with. However, he locates them without the help of the God’s Eye and surprises them three times. The episodic dramaturgy of “action scene A leads to action scene B, action scene B leads to action scene C, action scene C leads to action scene D” is tediously monotonous and indicates screenwriting laziness rather than an attempt to give the narrative a certain rhythm. On the other hand, we don’t have to rack our brains over how B connects with D (because that’s immediately obvious) or whether C will be followed by a return to A (at one point, the film even plays around with its straightforwardness when, to the strains of ominous music during the handover of the God’s Eye, it insinuates that Mr. Nobody might be a traitor), and we can enjoy the rapid sequence of the offered attractions, which are tied together by the fact that they negate Brian’s warning at the beginning of the film – “cars don’t fly”. Furious 7 is a film that’s proud of the fact that cars fly in it all the time. 75%
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Wan intentionally walks along the brink of parody. And you realize this already in the first scene with Statham’s brutal entry. The Fast and Furious series has worked its way up from a car tuning variation on Point Break to a high-tech spy-related celebration of family values where there’s still a lot of driving, but also equal doses of shooting and brutal hand-to-hand fights. The storyline as a whole makes very little sense. Technically, Vin Diesel and his gang are baddies who almost killed Statham’s brother - and that makes it personal - and in his revenge, Statham is just following Diesel’s philosophy regarding family. The action scenes are on a higher level than in the preceding episode. Who ever thought that the airplane from episode six couldn’t be outdone was seriously wrong. All the three gigantic car wars (Azerbaijan, Abu Dhabi, L.A.) are even crazier still. The incredible tricks with the bus where Paul Walker and Tony Jaa have a one-to-one and Diesel drives downhill are comparable to Transformers in terms of opulence. Abu Dhabi offers the much-viewed jump by Lykan through the skyscrapers (terrorists are already taking notes) and L. A. is the location for the showdown to symbolize a kind of homecoming. And the entire dynamics of problem-solving is extraordinarily idiosyncratic. Someone comes up with a crazy idea and the others say... ok then. Kurt Russel finances it, does a promotion stunt for Belgian ale and turns the series into a regular imitation of old Bond movies. James Wan wanted to make the style more like the classic movies about revenge from the 70s, but I’m not so sure it worked. This part is certainly a lot darker than all the preceding ones. This was quite easy to build up to this with the killer Statham. The close-ups give conflicts greater depth, but the white-hot action moves the genre type somewhere completely different. The habit of breaking up fist fights is only kicked with the Statham vs. The Rock match, the other fights then began falling apart again, which was most disappointing in the Diesel vs. Statham finale. The final conflict of two family guys (a monkey wrench against pieces of sheet metal) still hasn’t managed to outdo the clash of the titans from part five. The farewell to Paul Walker is sad, but well-done with a message (of course) about family and a final glance at the roots of the series. Paul left when the going was good (he even trained up Tony Jaa!) because the series can’t get any crazier or more entertaining than it is right now. P.S.: Those who fault its logic and burble about it not making sense of course are right, but they haven’t understood one fundamental thing. From time to time, viewers like this sort of action porn and Diesel and his gang are always pleased to entertain.
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The Fast and the Furious franchiser seems completely exhausted and overdone. If if #5 was some kind of boosted restart with fresh and rough southern blood, and #6 was about pretty, but visually smoother and with even crazier stunts. This one, unfortunately is already about 80-90 percent similar to the previous one. So, essentially it doesn’t go anywhere, it’s just bigger, more expensive, and louder. The summary “it's a bit too much" fits perfectly. And I haven't even mentioned the scenes that are copied straight from the previous film, it's striking. Especially the fight between Jason Statham and The Rock (almost identical as to The Rock vs Vin Diesel) and the female combos? Gina Carano at least had feminine charm and sex appeal, unlike the bulldozer queen. It also has the same flows: a PG-rating, meaning no blood even though heads are being cut off, unintentionally funny and nonsensical scenes, etc. Despite all this, you end up liking the main "family" of heroes and root for them, and despite the many shortcomings, Fast and Furious 7 still has the best action scene of the year – the only truly stellar one – yes, the one in the mountains with the armed convoy. You'll be amazed at how such a complicated action set-piece can be filmed so clearly. The farewell to Paul Walker is truly elegant and the final action scene is annoyingly long, loud, and monotonous. Go see it out of obligation and for Walker, but judge it as a functional/non-functional film – leave sentiment at home.
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“Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind.” It’s hard to say whether the screenwriters of this soap-operatic action franchise are fans of Lilo & Stitch, but they definitely transformed that film’s motto into the defining principle of the Fast & Furious series. In the seventh instalment about family, not only does absolutely every character on the franchise team yammer on about it, but so does the main antagonist, which opens up endless possibilities for more and more sequels in the future. Furthermore, we can apply the quote to the way in which the series bid farewell to the late Paul Walker, which goes against the expectations of supposedly seasoned viewers. Otherwise, replacement of the director brought forth very few changes (which raises the question of who serves as the showrunner in major film series) and instead rather intensified existing tendencies. Though the film has officially merged with the Forza Motorsport video-game brand, it is still firmly rooted in GTA. In addition to the general over-the-top comic-book stylisation, this is apparent mainly in the narrative, which this time is constructed according to an adventure formula whereby in order to achieve a particular goal, it is necessary to obtain the means to do so, which are connected with the fulfilment of a number of secondary tasks. The alternation of action scenes and melodrama continues in Furious 7 and again the non-action scenes serve as a radical retarder in every sense of the word. Nevertheless, the fountain of blather about family has already taken on an utterly absurd dimension, especially in combination with the ridiculously ripped Diesel and cartoonishly executed scenes. The formulaic nature of the film goes beyond the boundary of insipid soap operas into the realm of hysterical camp, which, however, adds to its fun factor. After all, how seriously Furious 7 should be taken is laid bare in the opening scene, which reliably divides the audience into those who will focus on realism, logic, causality and other things that are out of place here, and those who are in tune with the film’s mix of outlandishly overwrought pathos, kitsch and delirious ostentation. The previous instalment in the series had already gone beyond Bond-esque spectacle to surreal bombast in terms of the conceptualisation and stylisation of action scenes, and that trend continues here. Unfortunately, that includes the desperate climax swimming in CGI. Luckily, we can understand it as material fatigue following much more imaginative previous scenes, both in terms of the action itself and the shooting thereof. The fetishistic details of shifting gears and stomping on the pedals were transformed into a spectacular sequence of impressions with a throbbing cadence of a few windows. This time, the camera remains stable in the details and, conversely, takes greater risks in larger shots, which is beneficial to the dynamics of the sequences. But on the other hand, as has already been mentioned, the change of director did not change the direction of the series. There is no ground-breaking remodelling as in the fifth instalment; instead, only the formula established by that film is varied and a few nuances are added. Whereas comic-book movies strive for some overlaps and emotional swings, Fast & Furious is pure escapist popcorn that is entertaining as both a silly action flick and campy melodrama, and imminently forgettable.
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