Fast & Furious 7
Faster... and even more furious.
Getting the hang of it: Paul Walker
After the insanity of Fast and Furious 6, the latest sequel could only go in one direction: up. Indeed, the furious five – Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson and Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges – literally drive out of an aeroplane in order to crash-land in Azerbaijan. Only in La-La Land…
But let’s get things into perspective. James Wan’s Fast & Furious 7 is called Fast & Furious 7 – and it’s unequivocally fast and furious. The cars are fast, the moves are fast and the accelerated editing is every bit as muscular as the torsos of Messrs Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and the new bad man on the block, Jason Statham. Statham, as the apparently indestructible Deckard Shaw, is furious because Dom Toretto (Diesel) and his team have put his nasty brother Owen Shaw in a coma. So, for starters, Deckard puts Luke Hobbs (Johnson) in hospital, blows up Dom’s house and kills Han Lue (Sung Kang) in Tokyo. Deckard also gets around quite a bit and turns up unannounced in London, Tokyo, Azerbaijan, Abu Dhabi and Los Angeles. It’s that sort of film. No wonder it cost $176 million.
But it’s the stunts that the film’s loyal audience will relish and on that front F&F7 certainly delivers. Besides the aforementioned sky drop, a coach teeters on the edge of a Caucasus mountainside (but there’s no time for anybody to quip, “hang on, lads; I've got a great idea…”), while Dom gets to drive a $4m, diamond-encrusted Lykan HyperSport across three skyscrapers in Abu Dhabi. Actually, the movie is just one long pile-up of cunning stunts (230 cars were trashed). The one-liners and clichés may fly like bullets, but the vertiginous action takes the breath away. It’s ludicrous, dumb and formulaic and will not disappoint its baying legion of dedicated devotees.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris Bridges, Jordana Brewster, Djimon Hounsou, Kurt Russell, Jason Statham, Nathalie Emmanuel, Tony Jaa, Ronda Rousey, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Lucas Black, Elsa Pataky.
Dir James Wan, Pro Neal H. Moritz, Vin Diesel and Michael Fottrell, Screenplay Chris Morgan, Ph Stephen F. Windon and Marc Spicer, Pro Des Bill Brzeski, Ed Christian Wagner, Dylan Highsmith, Kirk Morri and Leigh Folsom Boyd, Music Brian Tyler, Costumes Sanja Milkovic Hays.
Original Film/One Race Films/Media Rights Capital/China Film-Universal Pictures.
137 mins. USA/Japan. 2015. Rel: 3 April 2015. Cert. 12A.
