Furious 7 (2015), PG-13, ★★★

Finally, Dom and Letty dress in fancy clothes in a franchise. 

Cars. Action sequences. Women in bikinis. These are the keys to the franchise that nobody believed that it would go on to 7 movies. Every time there is an another movie in the franchise, they have to up the ante a bit or a lot more. With this movie, the energy and level of action is higher than ever before and we'll get to that later in the review. However, even though many people are anticipating the film with excitement, they are also anticipating the movie with unfortunate loss of one of the main actors in the franchise. Even though this seventh movie is not as fantastic as Fast Five and Fast and Furious 6, this is still another ridiculous, solid addition to the franchise with a heartfelt tribute to one of their family members.

Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) promises his badly crippled and comatose brother, Owen (Luke Evans) that he will settle the score and find out who put him in the hospital. Meanwhile, Dom (Vin Diesel) drives Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) to a track where many people, include numerous women in small clothes in slow motion, gathers for race wars, which is something they invented when they were younger. When Letty wins the race, the congratulatory appreciation and noise disconcerts her and leaves. They both are at the cemetery where Dom breaks Letty's tombstone, however, she does not want to hurt his feelings as she says that the "old Letty" is gone. She still has amnesia.

Brian (Paul Walker) is adjusting to parenting life as he drops his son, Jack, at school in a mini-van and Mia (Jordana Brewster) notices it. Hobbs (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) continues to do some overnight work and then sees Shaw hacking into his computer. They get into a ridiculous fist-fight and when Shaw tosses the grenade to both Hobbs and Elena (Elsa Pataky), they both jump out off the window where Hobbs lands-first onto a van, injuring him and not harming Elena. It is shown that Shaw is looking for Han in the office.

Dom visits Mia at her home and when a large package arrives, Shaw phones in and gives a message which detonates the bomb in the package causing a massive explosion in the house. Everybody, including Brian and Jack, are safe. Dom promises to Hobbs to take Shaw down for good. At Han's funeral, the gang gathers at the cemetery, including Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Ludacris). After a brief fight between Dom and Shaw, a gang of agents including "Mr. Nobody" (Kurt Russell) brings Dom and his crew to a facility. The task is to rescue Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) from a bus where a terrorist leader named Mose Jakande (Djimon Hounsou) kidnapped her where he tries to find God's Eye, a surveillance system that can anybody from around the world. Using the system, Dom can locate Shaw.

The Rock is the cavalry. 

Again, this is a joyful and exhilarating equivalent of a fun action movie with no logic of physics whatsoever. It's crazy and the filmmakers do not care whether or not that physics exist. It is simply a pure cartoon with family. But, it is a good cartoon. The movie is supplied with great action sequences such as the Abu Dhabi scene where Dom and Brian get the car to fly between two buildings. Also, when they have to parachute while they are in their cars. Breathtaking and scary.

However, they both coincide with two stories and sometimes they do not mesh together quite well as one story is about a brother avenger his brother's supposed death (that's taken from Die Hard: With a Vengeance) and another about finding the God's Eye while being hunted by a terrorist leader. It's two different stories that could have been two different movies. But, I'm going to give the filmmakers and writers the benefit of the doubt because they had to rewrite effortlessly after the tragic loss of Paul Walker.

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker are quite a team together creating good chemistry again. Michelle Rodriguez still plays a bad-ass with some emotion that she has not evoked in the series ever. Brewster, Gibson and Ludacris play well in the roles. I wish we would have seen more scenes with Dwayne Johnson as he always provides excitement and depth to his character and to the movie. He's basically in the beginning stages of the movie and in the climax and end. Jason Statham is awesome as the villain but he's put aside for most of the film and he's needed whenever the script is required to need him. Kurt Russell also has fun in his role and Djimon Hounsou has a cool and slimy appearance as the leader and generates tension. There are a few individual fight scenes involving Tony Jaa and Ronda Rousey that are great, even though, the latter is not as good as the fight with Gina Carano in Fast and Furious 6.

But, it is a movie that does not have the discipline or class to showcase restraint. No, this is full-on energy and it is in almost every scene of the movie. This movie is a force of nature that you cannot resist because of its full-octane stunt work, set designs and action sequences and its poignancy towards family.

This is "For Paul".

Speaking of family, this is a first of putting a third photo in the review but this movie gives a heartfelt and moving tribute to Paul Walker in not such a corny way. It is credited to director James Wan from Insidious and The Conjuring. The final minutes of the movie will get you holding your tears back or letting them out as we have to sadly say goodbye to him in a flashback of the films he was in in the franchise but it is a great send-off for the character.

***