Furious 7

By: Robert Murphy

When a series like Fast and the Furious gets to it's seventh movie title you would expect it to be over the top with it's stunts, style and action just to keep you coming back for more. Furious 7 certainly takes this piece of information to heart with its outrageous amount of explosions, car chases and so many other huge stunts that I couldn't help but be locked into what I was watching. I should feel bad for liking the movies stunts as much as I did and once again I found myself asking the question "aren't these guys just common street criminals?" to which Vin Diesel's Dominic Torreto explains "my guys are the best drivers in the world but they aren't killers." It was down right hilarious when even the movie realizes that it's going to the extreme and I loved the whole thing even more for it. 

For those of you who should but don't know, Furious 7's plot had been set up by a shocking reveal at the end of Fast 6 and that surprise was that Han (Sung Kang) wasn't killed by a random driver, it was deliberate and now that person is coming after Dom and the rest of his crew. Why? Well, it turns out that Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) isn't too happy that his little brother Owen (Luke Evans) is now a cripple laying in a hospital bed and wants revenge. If you thought Owen was bad, wait till you hear about his big bad brother, rather yet, wait until you see the amount of destruction he caused within the first five minutes of the film. After saying his farewells to his brother, Deckard zooms off to the states to hack into our favorite wrath of God FBI agents computer, Luke Hobbs (Dwayne "Rock" Johnson). After a grueling fight scene and a stunt that would leave most men dead, Hobbs ends up in the hospital and Dom receives his first taste of Shaw's vengeance when an unknown package from Tokyo blows up his family home.

This event sets in motion a huge around the world adventure for Dom and his friends, Brian (Paul Walker), Tej (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges), smart mouthed Roman (Tyrese Gibsen) and returning member Letty (Michelle Rodriguez). Dominic has always said that family is the most important thing to him and once you mess with it there is nowhere on Earth you can hide from him. But, Deckard is also seeking revenge for family and so the two come off as evenly matched rivals. Two times in the movie they appear before one another in amazing cars and charge head strong into one another and demolish each of their cars. They're both okay, of course, and they both stumble out of their cars and begin to square off with one another with fists, guns and broken shards of their vehicles. Deckard also has the nasty habit of appearing wherever in the world Dom and his team happen to be and throws a monkey wrench into each of their plans. I don't know how he keeps finding Dom, maybe he's got a tracking chip on him or has one of those apps that wives install on their husbands phones to check if they're cheating on them. I just watched each heists sequence though in anticipation of when he would come charging in to try and kill all of them.

On the subject of tracking chip technology, it turns out that there is a huge shadow game going on underneath the revenge and gun shoot outs. A mysterious technology that is something right out of Eagle Eye is wanted by a possible CIA or some sort of American boogie man character played by Kurt Russell. The technology can use any phone camera, surveillance equipment and basically any technological device with a camera to locate someone anywhere in the world. It's creator, Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), is currently in terrorist custody and will probably be tortured until she gives up the location of this technology to their leader Jackonde (Djimon Hounsou). Mister Spook hires Dom's team to find Ramsey and the device before that happens, with the promise that once they do they can use it to find and take down Deckard. All of which sets up the final showdown through the streets of L.A. where Dom and his team have the home team advantage but with a giant predator drone, attack helicopter and the lunatic Deckard around, who knows how things will go down. I know how it will go down but I like to add a bit of whimsy into this insane action thriller movie review. 

Every bit of the action is incredible, if you thought the last movie had some great stuff, you will be amazed at what's in store for you this time. All the stunts feature over the top cars, fight scenes have kicks and punches going all over the place with the camera changing perspectives as people are slammed into the ground. You will sit in awe of the amount of crazy shit gets thrown at you and that is entirely the point of a movie like this. Like I said, at this point in a film series things are bound to be ridiculous and Furious 7 knows this but brings with it plenty of heart felt compliments that fans will love.

The thing I didn't expect to be so huge for the movie was the ending. A touching tribute to Paul Walker was bound to be included somewhere near the end but the film makers did a wonderful job of making it feel like a part of the actual film. Dom speeds off at the end of the story in his car without saying much to everyone and as he is stopped along a long highway, a car pulls up. In the drivers seat is a CGI Paul Walker (one of his own brothers was a stand in) and the two drive down the road with a narration given by Vin Diesel about Paul and how he still remains a part of his family and the rest of their lives. The road diverges and Paul's car drives off in another direction to symbolize his departure, it's a beautiful tribute that fans will undoubtedly love and enjoy.

Furious 7 is convoluted, filled with shadow government characters, giant explosions, ex-British mercenaries, beautiful cars and even more beautiful woman. And while Fast and the Furious may have come a long way from just a common criminal street racing movie series, I can't help but enjoy what it's turned into. Everything that was done may have been extremely out there but it was all done with care and great work by all it's actors. Every actor returns to their roles with strength and wonderful performances and if I didn't already suspect a sequel, I would call this movie a great send of for the series. 

Good:

- Kurt Russell and Jason Statham make wonderful additions

- Action, never ending, non stopping, heart pounding, action

- Paul Walker tribute

Bad:

- It probably won't be as easy for some to overlook the over the top craziness

Scully Rating: 8.0 out of 10

Fast and the Furious 6

By: Robert Murphy

It has been a long time coming since we saw the end of “Fast and the Furious 5” and how it teased us with what we had coming our way in “Fast and the Furious 6” and now we finally get to see what has been going on behind the scenes and right under our noses, while Dom (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker) and their team were doing what they had to do and I just hope they are ready for what’s in store. This time around though Dom is faced with ghosts from his past as Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) comes to him for help in taking down a bigger threat than Dom’s team ever was. Enter former British special forces solider Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) and his team who are pulling off high level robberies with the use of vehicular assaults and warfare but with an added twist, Letty. Yes, Letty is still alive and is working with Shaw and his team and in order to put a stop to it and get back what he’s lost Dom and his team are going to take down Shaw and get Letty back.

 Just what did happen to Letty?

As it ever was, the highlight to “Fast and Furious” movies is the cars, and oh God, is there some beautiful cars this time around. “Fast 6” pulled no punches and spared no expense when showing of some of the world’s top of the line precision vehicles.  While of course we don’t ever get to enjoy these beautiful pieces of machinery for very long in these movies they are incredibly nice to see, right up to the point where your heart sinks as they crash into a wall, go over a cliff or get smooshed by oh I don’t know, let’s say a tank. Yes, cars aren’t the only main attraction we all come to expect from a “Fast and the Furious” movie, we also expect to see over-the-top and crazy stunts with these cars and in that regard “Fast 6” laid out all it could, all be it some of the stunts were a little much even for me though. But as with every sequel to an over-the-top action film, the theme is to go bigger and more outrageous than the previous bigger and outrageous film that came before it and “Fast 6” succeeds in that department. While not revealing too much about the movie, scenes like the first appearance of Shaws custom car that can flip vehicles and launch them through the air shows just how much crazier things get this time around.

Shaw's flip car

The other appeal that “Fast 6” comes with is the group of actors and actresses that are involved with the movie and the underline theme of the movie itself and that theme is “family” and how you never turn your back on it. This family has a few big names in it with Tyrese Gibson (Roman), Ludacris (Tej) , Sung Kang (Han) and Gal Gadot (Gisele) are all returning to their roles and playing them perfectly and at the same time adding even more personality to their roles. Each of our cast gets their own bit of screen time added in, one scene in particular involving Hobbs and Tej being snub by a rich car dealer was particularly enjoyable for me as well as any moment where Roman had a chance to but in with his big mouth was just gold. But we also can’t forget about who brought this team together, Dom has a lot on his mind this time around with Letty being brought back into his life and the chemistry between them is even stronger than it was in the original “Fast and the Furious” movie. Where in the first movie Letty and Dom seemed to have a raw attraction towards each other, this time around you see just how much he cares about her and all they had and what he is prepared to do to save it.

 Gang's all here

Now this is a “Fast and the Furious” movie so crazy stunts and action are sure to follow, as I’ve mentioned earlier but there are moments where even I found myself rolling my eyes, mainly due to the cliché nature of certain moments. This wasn’t a huge issue for me since there was only one truly bad eye roll moment that I had while watching the movie and it would probably go ignored by a majority of those of you who see the movie. Also “Fast 6” suffers from a certain level of predictability as the story is coming full circle and tying up all the loose ends that wouldn’t match up with the story we’ve seen so far. But these are performed well and aren’t just plopped into the movie just because they needed to be there and as a fan of the “Fast and the Furious” movies right from the beginning, this was very pleasing.

 Drooling!

Overall, “Fast and the Furious 6” doesn’t disappoint a fan of the series like myself; it is still an adrenaline filled class of movie with fast and absolutely beautiful cars with a little more to it than it did way back when I first laid on the original “Fast and the Furious.” All of the actors shined as they did when they were first brought together in “Fast 5” and give a wonderful performance that really makes the on screen theme of “family” feel real. Of course there are those crazy action scenes throughout the film but hey it is a “Fast and the Furious” movie, would you expect anything different? And if you did then you clearly don’t know the series well at all.

Good:

-Amazing job by all the characters

-Oh God, those beautiful cars

-Over the top action that you wouldn’t believe till you see it

Bad:

-A few eye rolling moments, even for a seasoned action movie goer

-

Level of predictability that made moments in the movie not impact as they were meant to

Scully Rating: 7.5 out of 10