Furious 7 (Blu-ray + DVD + UltraViolet)
Blu-Ray Reviews | Sep 14th, 2015
Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris Bridges, Jordana Brewster, Nathalie Emmanuel, Djimon Hounsou, Kurt Russell, Jason Statham
Written By: Chris Morgan
Directed By: James Wan
Studio: Universal
Buy On Amazon.com
I have never seen a Fast and Furious movie until 2 weeks ago. Yes, it’s true. After not seeing any for 15 years, I binge-watched all 7 movies in the matter of a week. It was a lot of cars, racing, outrageous stunts and Vin Diesel mumbling things but I ended up enjoying the series a lot more that way.
The end of Furious 6 post-credits scene, we find out the real reason why Han was killed. He died in Fast and Furious 3: Tokyo Drift but the timeline of movies was really confusing at first. I guess that movie takes place between 6 and 7 but was the 3 movie? Was that the plan from the beginning or that’s how they got out of that painted corner? Anyway, that’s where Furious 7 takes us. Owen Shaw’s brother Deckard (Jason Statham) is out for revenge on Dom (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker), Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and the rest of the group. He begins to target them back in LA and most of them come out of retirement to stop him and to get ahold of some tracking device thing. I don’t know, just watch it since these movies are always light on plot.
I had no desire to see any of these movies, mainly because I thought they were just gearhead movies. In the beginning, they were. It wasn’t until around Furious 4 or 5 where things turned into these huge action adventure. Once Dwayne Johnson entered the franchise, that’s when I really enjoyed the franchise. You add him into the fray, it immediately makes things more exciting.
Paul Walker’s death is such a shame and tragedy. They needed 4 actors to fill in for Paul, 2 of them were his brothers. You can kind of tell with some of the shots towards the end was stand-ins, or CGI. The CGI on some of them is noticeable but doesn’t hurt the movie I don’t think. His presence in these movies (going further) will be missed though. You can’t deny the friendship and dynamic Vin and Paul had, and it showed on the screen. His character was pretty basic though but the way things were going in the series, I could have seen him leaving for good regardless of his death. The star of the movies is Vin and looks like it will continue on in some fashion. What they did at the end was bittersweet, emotional, and fitting. I can’t deny that I was holding back a tear but maybe it was big plate of onions underneath me. Yeah, onions, I’ll go with that.
I don’t know which movie I like the most out of the series but it might be 5th one, and then 6th and 7th together. Tyrese is my favorite character, but having Nathalie Emmanuel come on board might change that. Jason Statham finally plays a villain but I kind of wish he was on the other side of things. I also don’t think he was in it as much as he should since the movie had 2 villains. This is how the Expendables movies should have been. The stunts are beyond crazy and unbelievable. The driving thru the skyscrapers scene in Abu Dhabi was silly, but silly good fun. There’s cars, hot girls, crazy fight sequences, awesome car chases so it’s got everything you could want in a movie, if you’re a guy.
There are plenty of featurettes like deleted scenes, featurettes on the cars, the stunts, a music video, a long featurettes with director James Wan talking about various things in the movie. You got some Paul Walker tributes in the mix as well. The James Wan thing Talking Fast was the highlight since he goes over a lot of the things in the movie. How they did things, then actors interject with their thoughts as well. It’s sort of unique in that it’s like audio commentary but not. There’s enough stuff in the extra to make people happy plus there’s an extended edition of the movie as well!
I’m not a car guy but these movies have evolved into something more than that. I kind of wish I knew that since I could have watched the series years ago. Furious 5-7 are the best in the franchise but you have to see 1-4 to understand what’s going on in those movies. I have a feeling if you’re reading this, you already saw most of these movies though.
Features
Extended Edition
Deleted Scenes
The Cars of Furious
Flying Cars
Tower Jumps
Inside The Fight
Talking Fast
“See You Again” Official Music Video
“Back To The Starting Line”
“Snatch and Grab”
“Making Of” Fast & Furious “Supercharged Ride”
Video
Widescreen 2.40:1 Color
Audio
French DTS 5.1
Spanish DTS 5.1
English DTS-HD MA 7.1
Bottom Line: Fun entertaining movie that, believe it or not, makes you want even more
Running Time: 140 minutes
Rating: R
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
