Thursday 16 April 2015

The Magnificent Seven. Furious Seven.


True story: When I saw the original Fast and Furious in the cinema, way back in 2001,  I fell asleep; a near impossible feat I'm sure you'll agree.

There's no danger of that for 'Furious 7'. It's a film so packed full of thrills and spills that it defies you to not have a big stupid smile on your face for the whole running time. Really, it's a blast!

When has the seventh part of anything been any good? 'Furious' may well be the only cinematic franchise that gives incremental viewing pleasure.

In this one we find out that there's not a problem in the world that can't be solved by having the right car for the job and that even Los Angeles  isn't big enough for three bald-headed, testosterone-fuelled, action heroes to have a rumble in. Cars fly, asses get kicked, girls fight in evening dresses and cities burn. It's like a sweet, pure hit of every good bit from every action film ever. But it's good. Really good. Like they were really trying.

Obviously there's pathos here too; this being the late Paul Walker's final film. You get the sense that everyone involved in the making of this film raised their game to ensure that he had a worthy send off. His exit is really well handled.

It may only be a dumb action movie but it's a damn good one: great stunts, great fights, great lines, good humour. It's great to see Jason Statham as the bad guy for a change (guess what?, he's ex British special forces!). Kurt Russell manages to invigorate all the scenes he's in, despite being little more than Mr Exposition and the Product Placement Guy (seriously, the actual flow of the movie slows at one point just to mention Corona beers). There's always a perverse pleasure to be had in watching gravelly voiced Vin Diesel deliver all of his lines as if he's just had root canal work. No change there then. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is actually so good in it that you wish he had more scenes. Yes, I said more scenes. Michelle Rodriguez gets to do some proper acting (she's lost her memory or something), wear dresses, look gorgeous and go several rounds with martial arts bad ass Ronda Rousey - all at the same time. And Tony Jaa from Ong-bak is in it too.

Kudos to director James Wan who has effortlessly made the switch from mainstream horror (Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring) to mainstream action on what can't have been an easy shoot. With the weight of expectation on it, he's managed to draw the best out of everyone, keep the pace relentless and deliver the goods for fans and newcomers alike. On top of that there's a genuinely touching ending.

Along the way there's girl on girl violence, there's Stath on Rock violence, there's Vin on Stath violence, car on car violence, car on skyscraper violence and car on city violence.

The plot is pretty much a cut and paste of everything you would expect from this sort of film. There's revenge/payback motivation, there's a computer terrorism program that everyone is hunting for, etc, etc. But plot isn't why you're here. If you want plot with your car four wheeled thrills go and see 'Ronin'. If you want a real good escapist joy ride for two hours go and see 'Furious Seven'.


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