Furious 7

The nicest thing is that after the previous airplane games and intercity jumps, the seventh installment appears more believable most of the time. Not that cars with parachutes or crossing from one skyscraper to another are particularly realistic, but there is a certain spark of greater liveliness in them. Perhaps it's thanks to the 4D experience, which allowed me to personally experience all the falls and twists. Perhaps it is the merit of saying goodbye to Paul Walker, which works excellently in an emotional way. However, the most positive impressions are left by the domestic finale, which surpasses the already breathtaking passages from the Caucasus and the Emirates with its diverse involvement of all participants. The method of crossing, the Rock's idea for healing fractures, and above all, the showdown between Vin Diesel and Jason Statham are attractions pumped with adrenaline, brought to the level of a perfect experience. For the kind of movies whose mistakes you can only spot a few hours after your heart rate subsides, this group still has no competition. (03/31/2015)

I'm not going say that I wasn't entertained by flying cars, unbreakable body shells or a badass Jason Statham because I'd be lying. I had so much fun that what should have otherwise deserved 5 stars for the amazing action spectacle turned into a slightly awkward joke worthy of 3 stars, where everything turns against the narrator and a perceptive viewer familiar with the laws of physics and limited human abilities rather appreciates every moment when they do not have to laugh loudly and continuously – not to mention that the twist is nothing to write home about. To put it another way, the action is entertaining, but it makes you laugh mostly unintentionally, the script is weak, reminiscent of an action video game, where each new level is accompanied by a change of location and a new form of combat against the main enemy, and if we look back at the film, apart from a touching final farewell to Paul Walker, we see only an incoherent sequence of explosions and crazy stunt (or rather digital) action scenes. Thank God for the truly great actors who belong, belonged and will always belong to this series (R.I.P.). 65% (06/08/2015)

You would not resist falling in love with it if the movie had been more (much more) self-conscious as it was in the Rock or Statham scenes. In this way it is an unprecedented “over the guilty pleasure top" soap opera action movie with over-the top story line, which despite having an ultimate testosterone cast is lame, because instead of these guys punching each other all the time, the computers animating their CGI doubles in flying cars in many different ways are applied. And it is captures by a shaking camera, where the overall confusing chaos is multiplied by the epilepsy-inducing editing. Last time we saw such a waste of potential/cast was in... Well, actually sixth Fast and Furious. PS: Diesel will say "We are/I was a family" in different ways perhaps even more often than "I'm Groot" in the Guardians of the Galaxy. (04/02/2015)

This routine action flick is big and noisy, but with a completely forgettable script and direction. The Emirates will cover part of the budget, so let’s throw in some skyscraper-climbing in Abu Dhabi, so as not to feel inferior next to the Burj Khalifa in M:I. Then a tragic event interrupts the filming and we have to invest in a digital Paul Walker, so we’ll finish up at home in LA to save a few bucks. The best character (played by The Rock) gets too little screen time and you’ve already seen the best action scenes in the trailer. The final farewell to Paul was nice. (03/30/2015)

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. (04/04/2015)