One of the series' better outings

Rating: 7/10 (24 January 2016)

Written by Chris Morgan and expertly directed by James Wan, "Furious 7" will, of course, be forever remembered as the valedictory film for beloved star Paul Walker, who died tragically in a car crash in 2013. But this seventh in a series that began in 2001 is notable for other things as well.
The movie picks up where the previous one left off, with the team back home after having just brought down a notorious baddie, Owen Shaw, and received a pardon for all their previous legal infractions as a reward. Trouble is Shaw's older brother is out for revenge so he heads to the States to pick off the team one-by-one.
Under normal circumstances, Vin Diesel's wretched acting would be like a black hole in the center of the movie, sucking everything of quality into the void (and Michelle Rodriguez isn't much better). However, in the case of "Furious 7" - as it was NOT in many of the previous outings - the other elements are so good that they can withstand the gravitational pressure and keep the movie from collapsing into itself.
The challenge for a decade-and-a-half long series is to keep coming up with new and exciting stunts to maintain the freshness - and "Furious 7" meets that challenge head-on. After all, they've done just about everything they possibly could with these cars on terra firma, so why not just drop them out of an airplane as prelude to one of the most spectacular and thrilling automotive chase sequences in movie history? Why not indeed?
In terms of action scenes, that is certainly the high point. The second big set-piece - a chase through the streets of Los Angeles involving some sort of mega-drone or mini-spaceship and exploding skyscrapers (we're practically in "Avengers" territory at this point) - is so high-tech and over-the-top that it makes us a little nostalgic for the series that began as a simple tale of a bunch of guys drag-racing just for the sheer hell of it. The "Fast" franchise has always operated, to some extent, in the realm of fantasy, but, even in this CGI-crazed era in which we now live, movies can sometimes go just too far. And "Furious 7" does at times.
As usual, the action scenes are supplemented by smart-alecky dialogue (some of it quite funny, actually), gooey sentiment and endless corny homilies about the value of camaraderie and family. And, of course, the human body is forced to not only endure more punishment than a human body should but to then bounce back unscathed for yet another go- round.
I must confess that I haven't always been the biggest fan of the "F&F" movies, but "Furious 7" strikes me as a fitting sendoff for the late Mr. Walker.
And that pitch-perfect coda will have you weeping like a baby.