Synopsis

This is amazingly the seventh installment of the Fast & Furious franchise, and just in case you want to see these movies in the chronological sequence it goes as follows: The Fast & Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Fast & Furious (4), Fast 5, Fast 6, Tokyo Drift and Furious 7.

Now that we have that in order, Han Lue has been killed by ex-SAS soldier Deckard Shaw (who somehow had a name change between the last two movies, Ian Shaw to Deckard Shaw), the brother of Owen Shaw who by some miracle has survived his ordeal at the end of Fast 6. Deckard calls Dom from Tokyo and states his intention to avenge his brother and summarily blows up the Toretto residence. Dom decides that he and his crew will rather be the hunter than the hunted. Get ready for a ridiculous game of global cat and mouse, that will all be about who can get their hands on a software program (yes, a software program!) called the God’s Eye.

Review

“The Chairman” – As not to sound too negative in the this review, I will say that enjoyed the first 2 movies in this series. It was the racing version of Point Break, replace the surfboards with modified cars. But I am not sure when this happened, probably before Fast & Furious (4), the team must have fallen into vat of toxic waste giving them rubber bones and superhuman strength.

I do understand that movies in general are a form of escapism and not based in reality, but all movie franchises are governed by the rules that are set in the early films, that’s why i wouldn’t level the same criticism at any superhero or horror franchise. So when the biggest stunts in the first two movies are actually plausible, those are the rules that the rest of the franchise are governed by, so I have a challenge to anyone…..watch Part 1 and then Part 6, and then ask yourself…..BUT HOW?!?! People say turn off your brain when watching these movies so my take from that is, you have to be an IDIOT to enjoy it? (yes, that’s a question and feel free to answer it).

The film are shot strangely, probably due to the fact that none of the actors do their own stunts or fight scenes. Plenty of quick cuts and indistinguishable fighting.

The plot in all these movies has never been the strong point, so I don’t expect much as far as that goes. But it serves a movie like this best when there is one storyline to follow, I counted 3 actual plots but there could be more. The dialogue is woeful and unintentionally funny, one-liners that would embarrass Stallone & Schwarzenegger. I have a drinking game for you to play when watching this movie, take a shot (any hard liquor you have) every time Vin Diesel says FAMILY.

The movie handles the passing of Paul Walker with a level of dignity I didn’t expect and I will commend them for that, the song to play out the movie was the best part of the entire movie with flashbacks that will make even the toughest guys sentimental. 3/10