Furious 7 (English, 2015)

Vin Diesel, one of the mainstays and a big reason behind such a franchise yet again ushers himself to the forefront. The mad devotion of his fans to Vin Diesel’s kingdom of steel and testosterone has enough to be nurtured upon, yet again. Vin Diesel’s exclusive tribute to Paul Walker is one not to be missed and the team has to be commended for giving Paul a fitting finale.

Paul Walker’s one last time – this guy proves what Hollywood will miss and how subtly he has been another reason for the Franchise’s huge success. His presence as a family man who misses the bullets will stay etched in every F&F movie lover’s memory. F&F will never be the same without Brian O’Conner. Do watch out for his exhilarating jump in the cliff – you are sure to lose your fingernails unless you have watched the trailer.

The F&F movies long ago skipped the realm of plausibility. In the past, they pulled a vault through half of Rio, shot down an aero-plane, demolished tanks with cars. If you are wondering what they might end up doing next, you are sure to be spellbound by what you will see – the stunts just keep getting zanier. Who would have expected these tricked-out, turbo-boosted muscle cars to descent from an aero-plane using parachutes!!! If all the antagonists from the prequels were just schemers and had henchmen at their disposal, Jason Statham is the one who is directly involved in the action on the field and matches Vin Diesel and his men – blow to blow.

Kurt Russell makes his debut in F&F and his meaty cameo does the film no harm. If Vin Diesel’s talk about Russell having a bigger role in the next installment is to be believed, we are in for more fun. Dwayne Johnson sizzles in his limited scope but doesn’t miss out on making his mark felt. Tyrese Gibson and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges are at their rib-tickling best and Michelle Rodriguez plays out her emotional scenes to perfection. Djimon Hounsou, Tony Jha and Ronda Rousey round-off the cast of the bad guys and do well enough to be noticed.

Director James Wan has made a smooth yet roaring transition from his Saw & Conjuring days into the F&F franchise. He and the writers need to be admired for handling Walker’s loss and the re-rendition of the script while ensuring that nothing dulls down the flick. When the flick spreads to its denouement, there is a serious damper on all of the fun. Walker filmed almost all of his scenes before his untimely demise, but there is some cautious excision and some thoughtfully smeared special effects that complement the story.

The laundry-list of fairly trivial plot points and flashbacks, in an exciting flick does dampen the proceedings just a little. But the crazy action sequences seem to make up that void.

Mia’s absence from the movie, even though justified, due to rewriting of Walker’s role is a bit of an inhibitor.