Furious 7
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 (5)
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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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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.
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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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If it weren't for the completely unnecessary digital shenanigans with the drone and helicopter at the end, it would have been even better, because otherwise, everything in the seventh Fast & Furious is probably better than last time. The characters have something to say, the action is mostly very over the top but at least entertaining, and the man-on-man (and woman-on-woman) battles are just as interesting as the parachuting cars. Especially Vin Diesel versus Jason Statham... Now that's what I call a proper finale! Otherwise, I also have to bow to the tricksters, because I thought Paul Walker was digital only at the very end, before that damn touching cut; and yet I saw in the "making of" that he was digital much earlier – and it had never even occurred to me.
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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.
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