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The Furious 7

You have probably heard that Fast & Furious 7 or rather, Furious 7 made enough money to fill Scrooge McDuck's vault three times over in its opening weekend. I think that one of the biggest reasons for this is, because of all the movies in the franchise, Furious 7 has the most heart. To paraphrase Vin Diesel's character, Dominic Toretto: This time around it's not just about being fast. This was the first movie in the series that my girlfriend saw and she shed a tear in the cinema because this is a beautiful movie about friendship, family and a farewell to a brother. Don't get me wrong, it's also about fast cars, ridiculous action scenes and golden girls in bikinis (I kid you not). Furious 7 looks good and is one of the coolest movies out this year.

Furious 7 sees Justin Lin, director of the franchise since Tokyo Drift, hand over the keys to James Wan to have at it in the driver's seat. Wan sounds like an odd choice to direct, being known for his horror movies like Saw (2004), Insidious (2010) and The Conjuring (2013), but pulls it off spectacularly. Furious 7 is a final goodbye to Paul Walker and that's something that had to be done with love and Wan manages to convey that in the movie. The detail of the action sequences is brilliant with camera zooms and slow mo used in very cool ways to create suspense that actually leaves you on the edge of your seat, even though you knew the good guys would be okay all along.

The Furious 7

Crazier than before

You know how they hire eight-year-olds to write the script for Transformers movies? The Fast and The Furious does a similar thing, but they at least edit it a bit after the kid has written it. The car chases/battles are crazier than before, which is saying a lot considering that a tank and, later, an aeroplane on a never-ending runway were involved in car chases in the last movie. Roman (Tyrese Gibson) has a funny rant in the movie about how of all the crazy things they've done, jumping out of an aeroplane with their cars is the craziest. That's not even a spoiler because you can see some of that scene in the trailer. The story is that Owen Shaw, the bad guy they put away in the last movie, has a meaner older brother named Deckard Shaw. This guy is so bad ass that he doesn't even need a team to mess with Dom's crew. He is basically like the bad guy in horror movies, he just keeps coming and kicking ass. Deckard is played brilliantly by Jason Statham (Transporter) and fulfils all sorts of dreams we've had of seeing him face off with The Rock and Vin Diesel. Deckard is as tough as nails and seeing him fight it off with Dom, armed with tyre levers is just cool. The reason Deckard wants to kill Dom and everyone in his crew is because they put his brother in hospital - his brother who was a murderer and just a downright nasty dude. They didn't even kill the guy and Deckard is all kinds of mad because, you know, family. I think it's a bit of an overreaction, but sure wish I had a brother who would do that for me.

The Furious 7

God's Eye

Deckard Shaw may be a bad-ass loner, but even he needs some help when Dom's crew proves to be quite a handful. Mose Jakande (Djimon Hounsou) is a mercenary whose team is after a device called God's Eye because it can hack into any device with a camera on the planet and use facial recognition to find anyone. These two team up as a matter of convenience. Dom's crew gets help from a government spook, Mr Nobody (Kurt Russel) to take down the bad guys. Dom's team is made up of Brian (Paul Walker), who serves as the heart of the movie and it's cool to see the CGI and body doubles with his brothers they used to have Walker's character finish the movie after his death. Michelle Rodriguez (Machete) is back as Letty and is still coping with her amnesia and getting to grips with her relationship with Dom. Jordana Brewster (Annapolis) plays Mia, Dom's sister and Brian's girlfriend. Tej (Ludacris) is back as the tech guy and Roman (Tyrese Gibson) as the comic relief. The beautiful Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones) plays hacker Ramsey. The Rock returns as Luke Hobbs and he is still kicking ass and delivering cheesy one-liners that we all love, and by his side is Elsa Pataky (Snakes on a Plane) as Elena. Han (Sung Kang) and Gisele (Gal Gadot) have cameos and so do some people from the older movies. You'll also see Ronda Rousey (The Expendables 3) kicking some ass in the movie. The casting is brilliant and everyone on the main cast knows each other so well by now that it really feels like they are family.

It's not a Fast and Furious movie without some beautiful cars burning it up in some exotic locations. Furious 7 transports viewers through places like Los Angeles, Tokyo, the Caucasus Mountains and the Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi. This movie is ice-cold levels of cool and lots of fun to watch. It's the perfect send off for Paul Walker. Because I know you guys are like Dom and don't have friends, you have family I recommend you get together and pop into the cinema to see Furious 7. It doesn't disappoint.

About Charles Siboto

Charles Siboto is a delightful, youngish person. He firmly believes that kindness matters and cannot abide people who are asshats.
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