Nothing is too ridiculously amazing for 'Furious 7'

Dwayne Johnson takes aim at a helicopter with a machine gun in "Furious 7." Photo by Scott Garfield, © 2015 Universal Studios.

I can be a mighty tough critic from time to time, but the only things I really ask from a film is an entertaining viewing experience. It sounds like a simple requirement, and there are a plethora of avenues a film can take to get to that point. They can be well-acted, well-plotted dramas, intellectual gauntlets (see the works of Lynch, David and Herzog, Werner) or comedies that elicit a fair amount of laughs and guffaws.

That even stretches to encompass a film that's just pure fun, one that releases (or unleashes) the proverbial inner 10-year-old boy and makes audience members say “yeah” during a well-executed sequence. Considering how I often pretended to shift gears in my automatic Hyundai after watching “Furious 7,” I'd say the film delivered exactly what it wanted to the audience.

One thing I wanted as a viewer is pictured above. (Photo by Scott Garfield, © 2015 Universal Studios.)

The latest entry spawned by “The Fast & The Furious,” “Furious 7” brings back Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), best friend Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker), longtime girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), associates Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Ludacris), and agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) for another globetrotting, car-filled adventure. This time, the crew/family (the latter word is repeated with great frequency) has to face off against Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), the brother of the criminal busted in the sixth film. He's out for revenge and starts off by murdering Han (Sung Kang) and has aspirations to hunt down the family members one by one.

A mysterious agent named Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell), however, intercedes and offers Diesel and his gang a way to strike back against Statham via a hacking device called the god's eye; that is, if he and the rest of the family can rescue the hacker (Nathalie Emmanuel) from the clutches of the evil Jakande (Djimon Hounsou). Balancing the action that results from this scenario are dramatic story lines involving Walker's attempts to cope with life as a father and Rodriguez's soul-searching quest to recover her memories lost as a result of an accident in film four.

Feel free to take a deep breath after that explanation of a plot that is labyrinthine at best. There is way too much going on for a film like this, and all the action results in a film that's fatter than it ought to be; chopping off about 10 minutes would make “Furious 7” a far less exhausting viewing experience. I could go on with complaints about the logic behind the script and the acting (not great, but the cast has a gained a comfortable camaraderie over the years) and all of that critical jazz, but people pay to see “Furious” films for two reasons: to check out some PG-13 eye candy and to watch ridiculously awesome things happen with cars. “Furious 7” certainly succeeds on both fronts, as those two-plus hours of celluloid are chock full of several gratuitous shots of women that linger on certain regions of the body and images of cars going fast and going places they do not belong. 

Put a top on that or something.

The first motivation is a largely puerile and definitely sexist, although it is balanced out slightly by Rodriguez's role as one of the toughest people in the world. The notoriously tough actress beats up MMA star Ronda Rousey this time around after taking out Gina Carano in the last film, and she decimates a fair number of men to boot. “Furious 7” also passes the Bechdel test, due in large part to having multiple women actually involved in the planning and execution of the family’s heist plans. They are eye candy, but they at least serve an important role in the execution of the ridiculous feats of awesome.

And dang if those feats aren't terrifically enthralling. Director James Wan and screenwriter Chris Morgan have cars falling out of airplanes, drive another valuable piece of machinery crash through three buildings, and even launch a car at a helicopter as a weapon, among other stunts. It feels like Wan and Morgan and the producers wrote down every stunt that came to their mind, then came up with ways to top them.

The best idea the filmmakers had was casting Statham as a Michael Myers-esque hunter fueled by vengeance. Morgan's introduction of the character is brilliant too; instead of telling the audience via exposition how terrifying the Statham is, “Furious 7” simply pans out to show Statham amble through the destruction he wrought just to see his brother (Luke Evans) in the hospital. It’s a terrific and surprisingly subtle bit of filmmaking for a series that rarely takes the subtle route.  

Besides revealing Statham's badassery, the sequence sets up the British bulldog as Diesel's doppelganger. Both are men who value family over everything else, willing to sacrifice material goods for the sake of protecting or honoring their own, but the difference between the two is where the value comes from; Statham's is rooted in blind obligation, while Diesel's is built upon trust and love. It's a clever little element that adds a modicum of intelligence to an otherwise brilliantly dumb movie, and it adds a little more danger to a lively franchise entry.

Review: Four out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG-13

Run time: 137 minutes

Genre: Action

Ask Away

Target audience: Gearheads and “Furious” series followers.

Take the whole family?: It’s way too intense for the wee ones, but kiddos ages 10 and up should be OK if parents don't mind a little violence and a lot of bikini shots.

Theater or Netflix?: Theater is good for sure, but be wary of paying extra for an IMAX screening. It's cool to watch on the big, big screen, but no necessarily worth the extra expense.

Pour one out for Paul Walker: Walker never became an “A”-list actor, but he had a pair of quietly good performances in “Varsity Blues” and “Pleasantville” back in the day and was rock solid in his “Furious” films. If Vin Diesel  is the series' star and Dwayne Johnson the muscle, then Walker is the heart of the series, which he proves one last time in “Furious 7.”

Watch this as well?: Aside from the other entries in the franchise, “Death Proof” is a good companion piece, a thriller with some epic car chase scenes and stunts that also stars Kurt Russell. Also watch “The French Connection”: it's a much smarter film than anything “Furious” related and more plot heavy, yet it still indulges in action tropes and has one of the greatest car-chase sequences in film history.

                                         Totally worth the five-minute plus time expenditure.