Not Bad but Not Good Either....

Rating: 5/10 (8 April 2015)

For those not looking for spoilers (which are below) I gave this movie a 5 out of 10 for the poor acting and ridiculous story line. Movie was 3 hours long with previews so be prepared. Worth a DVD rental - not worth movie theater pricing - not even for sound or graphics. And, don't wait past the end...there are no scenes during or after the credits.
I love the F&F franchise - and I own all the movies. I'm also a big Diesel fan and one of my favorite movies of all time is Chronicles of Riddick. With that said, he is a hit and miss actor. Some of his roles are great and he delivers them with a natural ease - making you see him as the character and not an actor playing the character - other roles seem so fake it's hard to watch. This was one of those movies, most of the main characters acting seemed very forced and even the relationships lost chemistry. You would think after nearly 7 movies together their chemistry would get stronger, not weaker. Acting wise, for most of the characters, this was B movie level...way below box office hit.
***** Spoilers Here *****
The second issue I had was the complete unbelievable directions these films are taking. I watch movies to escape and there is always an unrealistic nature to them, but the fun is being able to imagine yourself in those situations if they were real. The draw to the original F&F movies was that there was a real-life element to them. A culture that really existed and you could be a part of. There was nothing real about this movie. You destroy half of Los Angeles and the entire police force is missing?? OK. You crash your car off a thousand foot high cliff and walk away like nothing happened?? Yeah. All of a sudden a bunch of street car racers have military and black-ops fight training?? Sure, no problem. Your run of the mill street racing car gets hit by a rocket from a helicopter sized drone and you keep racing like nothing happened?? Absolutely. The government has an entire special-ops force at their disposal and only you can parachute a car out of a plane?? Right. One guy took down an entire army of special forces soldiers and destroyed a hospital just to see his brother, but your wife is safe at a magistrate's house in Barbados with a few armed gun men who look like they came straight off a drug dealers property? Gotcha.
I believed the movies when they were heist movies that focused on their on relationships. I believed them when they needed to infiltrate bad guys and undercover cops were too noticeable. But, I do not believe they are the only group of people that can find and rescue an unknown hacker...who has the most sought after invention - EVER...causing billions of dollars worth of damage across multiple continents and have no notice taken by local law enforcement or other government agencies than the CIA (who mysteriously disappears so only The Rock can save the day).
Other less obnoxious issues - the cameos by Iggy and Roussey - neither where very good or added to the film. The fact that everybody stood less than an inch from the other persons face when having a conversation...why so close? And, finally, at my son's request, the fact that the race between Dom and Sean in Toyko was never seen. It was the one element he wanted to be in the movie that wasn't there.
See it, the ending was sad, you could hear sniffles across the whole theater. But, don't bother spending movie theater prices. Nothing offered was big screen necessary or big sound necessary. And nothing more disappointing than dropping $20 a person between tickets and snacks to see a movie that could be enjoyed on your couch for a fraction of the cost.