I have told this several times and will say it
again, any movie which knows what it is and sets out to do the same without
trying to be something more will always be a good movie. This series had
graduated from guilty-pleasure to mindless-fun in 2011 with Fast Five. And here
they never tried to be preachy and never got over the top on sentiments but
still gave one of the most adrenaline filled action flick and an emotional
sendoffs to one of their actor. An ode actually.
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| Full cast. For One.Last.Time |
When The Fast and The Furious movie came out in
2001, no one in their wildest dream had thought that 14 years later we will be
seeing its seventh and the most amazing part. Although Fast and Furious series
was conceived to be run of the mill thriller movie at that time, it became much
more than that since its fifth installment in 2011. The best part of this
series is that they have been able to top their previous installments with each
sequel.
This new movie opens with the news of Han’s
death which we had witnessed in 2006 sequel Tokyo Drift. At that time it was
considered a spin-off although now the producers have been able to seamlessly
orient it with the current installment. Now we have Jason Statham joining the
high octane cast as Deckard Shaw, brother of Owen Shaw, villain of Furious 6.
He is out there to get revenge from the ‘family’ of Dominic Torreto (Vin
Diesel). He has killed Hans and hell-bent to kill others. There’s also a convoluted
subplot of Kurt Russel trying to acquire some God-like technology but has the
story ever been strong suit for F&F series.
This time director James Wan took the reins from
Justin Lin who had directed 4 previous installments. And he brings his own set
of skills to work. Movie is still very stylish but the characters were little
under-used in some case and not explained enough in some others. But it can be
argued that this was one of the most difficult movie to make and therefore
there was not enough flair. With the untimely death of Paul Walker, the movie
had to go several re-writes and re-shoots. Therefore pointing out flaws in plot
would be cruel. Although props to the director for visiting characters and
events from each of the last 6 movies and blending it all in one.
By this time Vin Diesel can play Dominic Torreto
in his sleeps. He, along with Paul Walker, are the spine of these sequel of
movies. It is heartbreakingly sad that we won’t be able to see more of Paul
Walker in these movies or in any. And the characters in the movie don’t held
themselves back from giving him a perfect send-off. By the time he died, not
even half of the movie was shot. It is an achievement that they could still
come out with full movie within a year. I was told that they had used shots of
Paul’s brother and CGI to complete his role but you wouldn't tell the
difference as it is done faultlessly.
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| Roman and Tez at what they do best. Mindless humour and crazy 90s dialogues |
Other members of ‘Family’ like Roman, Letti and
Tez did their job without any fuss bringing comic relief at all the times
without being dumb. Over the decade or so all these actors have developed a
rapport and therefore each laugh, anger and fear is felt genuine. One of the
strong points of the movie is that they have abrasive one-liners of 90s in
proper amount, not more not less than what was required.
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| Rock literally kept screen on fire |
The only real flaw of the movie was not using
Dwayne The Rock Johnson more. When he is on screen he sets it on fire. Every
scene that he is in, he wins those scenes.
His fight with Jason Statham and bromance with Vin Diesel are all
equally good. I also had the privilege of watching the movie with a passionate
but learned full house audience. So when The Rock gives the rock-bottom to
Jason Statham there were woos all around. Rock, Diesel and Jason Statham, these
three bald heroes have mastered the art of action movies over period of time
and they are in their top form here.
The 3D is very ordinary, nothing will be missed if you watch the movie in 2D. These kind of movies are shot in 2D and later converted to 3D, therefore there is nothing extraordinary in it.
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| The hair-less heroes of hair raising action sequences |
As for the most important ingredient of this
series: Action Sequences. There is one set piece after another with just enough
breathing space between the sequences. This is an escapist cinema. There will
be no realistic approach to the action sequences. It’s like the producers are
saying on our faces: “You can have your Bourne and Bond actions, I will have my
cars flying from planes”. You will be awed, overwhelmed and then overawed by
the scene after scene of action they pull off. Cars flying from plane, cars
jumping off cliff, cars jumping from one tower to another then another. And by
the end of it you will be adrenalized.
Still, the most beautiful sequence comes at the
end where they give a beautiful farewell to beloved Paul Walker. If you have
watched these series in real time over last 14 years, like me, you may get lump
in your throat watching him one last time in his one last turn as Brian.
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| If not for anything else, watch it for this man |
Although the movie is poised to earn over a
billion, I wish they end it here because the higher you go the harder you fall.
Can’t see them topping this one.
This movie is everything you love about the
series: Cars, Fights, Fighting cars, hot girls, 90s one liners, Rock, Diesel. And
a charming finale to Paul Walker’s last act.
8/10- For sticking to the core.
