does what it's supposed to do, though unlikely to resonate for non-fans

Rating: Null/10 (3 April 2015)

The family of street racers are back, again; there are personal matters at stake, again; circumstances have forced them to team up for one last ride, again. Having successfully defeated criminal mastermind Owen Shaw, members of the crew have gone their separate ways. Little did they know about Shaw's big, bad-and ingeniously resourceful-brother Deckard, who comes lurking out of the shadows for revenge (heretofore unseen big brother comes to avenge little brother, truly a novel cinematic idea!). Add to the mix a few other ruthless bad guys, some shady and seemingly indestructible federal agents, a beautiful woman with brains, some rough-and-tumble fight scenes, one ridiculously over-the-top action sequence after another, and the stage is set for pretty much everything you've come to expect from this long-running franchise. Logic, character development, and story continuity/credibility take a backseat to needless exposition, crowd-pleasing one-liners, and superfluous action set pieces, like you'd expect, but the presence of series veterans, effective casting in key roles, and knowledge that this is the late Paul Walker's final film give it much more weight than it should. **