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nFurious 7 (2015)
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nDirector: James Wan
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nCast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jason Statham, Kurt Russell, DwaynenJohnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, GalnGadot, Elsa Pataki
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nIf you’ve been following the Fast and Furious franchise,nthen you know the big expectation surrounding this seventh installment. If notnthen you should know that one of the main actors of the series, Paul Walker,ndied right smack in the middle of the production. Tragedy and irony joinednforces, and he passed away while driving a fast car, just like the onesndepicted in the movies. For a moment there the production floated innuncertainty. Would they scrap the project or pull on through and finish thenfilm? Considering all the millions that had already been invested, of course theynpulled through and finished the film, Hollywood has never been known to backndown, even when death shows its ugly face. The interesting thing about thisnseries of films is that each film has been more successful than the last withnFurious 6 (2013) pulling in more than 700 million worldwide. So of course, anlot was expected of Furious 7. I mean, Fast 5 (2011) and Furious 6 (2013) werenultra explosive action films, bombastic in every way imaginable. It’s expected,nin true Hollywood fashion that this seventh film would surpass anything seennbefore. Is Furious 7 more exciting and explosive then previous installments?nHow did they finish the film without Paul Walker?
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nSo this time, everything revolves around something called “ThenGod Chip” which is basically this chip that when installed can let you tap anyncamera, computer or phone anywhere, anytime. In this way making it an easy tasknto locate anybody in the world. Toretto and crew being the best at stealingnthings are contacted by a secret organization to take the chip from the badnguys and save the free world from evil. In the middle of all that, we havenJason Statham and Dominic Toretto, each on their private vendettas. WillnToretto and crew get the God Chip from the bad guys and save the world? WillnToretto and Statham ever kick each other’s asses?
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nI grew up watching action movies from the 80’s so I’m alwaysnwondering where this generations Arnold Schwarzenegger is at. Where’s thisngenerations Sylvester Stallone? Well, Furious 7 has answered me thesenquestions. Furious 7 has gathered all the relevant action stars of today. Inspeak of Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham and Vin Diesel. These guys are thencorner stone of any nutritious nitroglycerine extravaganza and it was cool tonsee them all together in a gargantuan action film like this one. Furious 7 isnas if back in the 80’s Arnold, Stallone and Van Damme all made an action filmntogether when they were in their prime. And it’s awesome to see all thesenmodern action stars kicking each other’s asses nand walking away in slow motion from the explosions behind them. Did thenmovie make the best of this unification of testosterone?
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nYes, Furious 7 has a lot of action in it, jumping fromnthrilling action scene to action scene, unfortunately, they blew their wad andnthe ending isn’t as exciting as I’d expected when compared to the previousnfilms which ended with a bang. I’m sure this had a lot to do with the death ofnPaul Walker, because the death of a major cast member will bring the momentum ofnany production down a couple of notches. Still, it’s amazing that they pullednthrough and finished the film and delivered an entertaining fun ride. Just don’tnexpect the film to end with anything as awesome as cars jumping out ofnexploding air planes in a gigantic ball of flame. Still, Furious 7 has enough awesomenaction scenes to please any fan of this series of films. Check this out, we getna fight scene between Tony Jaa and Paul Walker! There’s a particularlynthrilling scene in which the whole crew parachutes out of a plane while still insidenof their respective cars! We get cars jumping from sky scraper to sky scraper,npretty cool stuff. Totally unrealistic, but who the hell cares cause its funnand we have fun characters to pull us through the cheesier stuff. And that’snreally what holds this cheesefest together, the characters and the camaraderie betweennthem.
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nIt’s not easy to make a movie with so many characters in it,nso you can expect some characters to get the cold shoulder in order to make waynfor others to take the center stage. Mainly, it’s the girls who get the shaftnon this one. We don’t get much of Elsa Pataki, Jordana Brewster or Gal Gadot. Butndon’t worry, Michelle Rodriguez steps in for them with an awesome fightnsequence with Ronda Rousey. Rodriguez also gets a chance to stretch her actingnchops due to the resurrection of her characters romance with Vin Diesel. VinnDiesel gets to say a gazillion cheesy lines, every one of them as cringe worthynas the last. Every time Toretto talks I laugh because he’s always talking likenhis a wise man or a guru, spewing little golden nuggets of stupidity. He cannnever talk like a normal person, it’s always some cheesy over sentimental onenliner like “I don’t have friends, I have family”, but call me crazy, I’ve grownnto accept these terrible one-liners as part of what these films are. They wentna little too far by turning Toretto into The Hulk at one point, but what thenhell, again, I went with it. I can’t really complaint about that when I’venalready accepted so much. So anyhow, younshould have a blast with Furious 7. Of course, the film does end on a sombernnote because of Walker’s death. But they did edit a decent homage to hisnpresence throughout the whole series and they do send him off to speedsternheaven in fashion and style. I heard a couple of sniffles in the audience. Nondoubt this movie will make obscene amounts of money, and no doubt we’ll getnanother one. Honestly? I half way expect the team to be sent off into space fornthe next film.
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nRating: 4 out of 5
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