BLOOD WORK: SILVER TONGUED SILVER SCREEN: FURIOUS 7

It's almost summer time and the summer movie season is nearly upon us! And you know what that means: movie reviews galore of the latest blockbusters! Last Thursday I was privileged to see the grand finale to the Fast & the Furious franchise: FURIOUS 7.

Time to play catch up. If you haven't seen the previous three films then you might find yourself a little lost. Starting with the 2009 film Fast & Furious the series embarks on a new storyline that finally ends here. The series makes a dramatic shift from a series about racing to a balls to the wall action film franchise. Sadly I never got into cars or vehicles of any sort. Technical stuff and gears and motors aren't really my thing. So it was the action of Fast 5 and Furious 6 that really hooked me. And Furious 7 boasts an action extravaganza to top the legends themselves.

To get the story of this film you really need to see the previous film. To get that story of that film you really need to see Fast & Furious (part 4). To understand why Dwayne Johnson is there you need to see Fast 5. Or just say the hell with it and go for the action. After the defeat of Owen Shaw in the previous film Shaw's older brother Dekkard (played by Jason Statham) is out for revenge against Dom, Brian, and the rest of the team. He kills one of their own and then attempts to kill Dom and Brian.

Dekkard misses his chance and Dom and the others escape with their lives. Now it's up to them to find a way to battle this underworld ghost killer elite. The team is recruited by government spook Mr. Nobody (played by the legendary Kurt Russell) to steal a revolutionary surveillance chip called the God's Eye from a group of terrorists and rescue the hacker who created it. In return Mr. Nobody promises to let the team use God's Eye to find Dekkard and turn the tables on their would-be assassin.

The movie goes on from here driving head on to a number of wicked awesome fight scenes and climactic set pieces. It's kind of a convoluted plot but it works well to get a ton of characters into the film and gives enough for the team to do to still feel relevant to the story. Just the same the movie is packed to the gills with characters and by the end you feel not everybody got enough screen time. Overall it works pretty well. Where it suffers the most in my opinion is Jason Statham for most of the film is chasing them and not given a whole to really showcase his talents. But then I am a big Jason Statham fan.

SPOILERS AHEAD:
Stand out moments in the film include the fight sequence between Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson. That fight was the shit! I don't feel Jason Statham's hard hitting action style was portrayed as well in this movie as it has been in his other films like Crank, Killer Elite, or even Home Front. Even so it still is a dream match up action fans like myself have been dying to see!

The whole set piece in Abu Dhabi is worth multiple watches. Michelle Rodriguez vs Ronda Rousey is perhaps the hottest chick fight ever! And of course oh so badass. This film also features one of the greatest Muay Thai fighters to grace film, Tony Jaa. Here's where I feel they missed an opportunity. Tony Jaa is incredible to watch. What he can do defies logic. They show off some of his other worldly skill but not nearly enough. The fights between Jaa and Paul Walker are awesome, especially the second fight, but you can tell Jaa is holding back. Still it's pretty cool to see.

The movie finally connects directly to Tokyo Drift even bring back the star of Tokyo Drift for a scene which was great to see. Along with that there are plenty of throwbacks and nods to the original three films to make the oldest fans of the series smile. There is still plenty of sexy cars and one honest to god straight up race. Also there are plenty of gratuitous ass shots and loads of hot chicks. With Statham and Rousey in the film it's probably the closest we'll ever get to see The Expendables Vs Fast & Furious.

All in all I really enjoyed it but I think it falls short of the last two films in the series. It suffered not only because of Paul Walker's untimely and tragic death but also because the studio rushed it into production for a summer 2014 release. Because of the rush by the studio series director Justin Lin (the man responsible for parts 3 thru 6) was unavailable to direct. Instead they hired a wonderful horror film director to step in, James Wan. I love James Wan's films but I missed Justin Lin in this one. They should have waited... but if they had waited the film might never have been completed due to Paul Walker's death. I guess a James Wan directed Fast & Furious is better than no Fast & Furious.