Stacked to the brim with the usual collection of nonsense, clichés, terrible dialogue and acting Furious 7 also brings some of the best and most insane action I have ever seen for one of the most fun experiences one can hope for at the movies.

Picking up right where the last movie left off, Furious 7 finds Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) out for revenge for his brother Owen  (Luke Evens) being put in a coma by Dom (Vin Diesel) and his crew. First he takes out Han (Sung Kang) as seen at the end of the last movie (and in Tokyo Drift) and then he goes after Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson). Putting the Rock in the hospital and blowing up Dom’s house is enough for the crew to realize they need to band together to take Shaw out. Brian (Paul Walker) puts Mia (Jordana Brewster) and their child in a protected location and joins with Roman( Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Ludacris) and Letty (Michele Rodriguez) to help Dom go after Shaw. Then Mr Nobody (Kurt Russell) shows up and complicates things with a search for a hacker named Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) who has created a surveillance program called the God’s Eye and has been kidnapped by a terrorist named Jakande (Djimon Hounsou). If Dom’s crew can get Ramsey and the God’s Eye back for Mr Nobody then Mr Nobody will let them use the God’s Eye to track Shaw. Got all that?

So look, first off, the story makes no sense when you look at it because there is no reason that Dom needs the God’s Eye because Shaw is coming at him. He is like the sex demon in It Follows, if you wait long enough he is going to show up but I bring that point up just to say it doesn’t matter at all that the plot makes no sense. Not even a little because what you have here is an all out assault on our senses that just needs a reason to have the characters do batshit crazy things and that is it. It is kind of like a high quality porn in so far as the story is there to set up scenarios that could never possibly happen but are still a lot of fun to watch. And man is it fun to watch.

The action set pieces in this movie somehow manage to go above and beyond anything that we have seen from the franchise before and frankly that is impressive as hell because this is not a series known for subtly. Every action sequence here not only trumps the previous installment but also the previous scene. It escalates to a degree that I would not have believed if I hadn’t seen it for myself.  From the staging and execution of the action scenes to the fantastic camera work by director James Wan, the whole thing looks incredible and is very exciting to watch. To illustrate the point you have to understand that this movie starts off with a  fight between the Rock and Jason Statham that includes the Rock Bottom and it gets better from there. That is the sort of thing that would finish off lesser movies and Furious 7 uses it as a jumping point.

Now of course it is fair to say that if you don’t like movies that disregard physics, gravity, the amount of punishment a human body can reasonably take, or just reality in general then this is not the movie for you. Honestly if Dom just decided he could fly in the middle of this I would probably pause but then shrug it off an accept it.  In no way does this film even flirt with realism. They are not even in the same bar. This movie is so far away from being able to flirt with reality that they would have to pay international calling fees. Again, however, I don’t care. One of the things I love about this series is its willingness to just say to hell with reality and just have fun. One of the other things I love about it is how well it pulls it off.

I have never really understood the sweet spot these movies have found in terms of offering ridiculous bullshit that I would never accept in a million years in another series but that I will gladly devour here. There is so much in this series that I would hate in another movie. The dialogue is really, really bad and the stories are gobbledygook and the acting is dodgy at best but it just works in these movies. I think part of it is that all of those things are necessary to allow for the suspension of disbelief. Perhaps in order to accept the sorts of things that go on here it has to lower the bar a bit but I think there are some other pressing factors.

I don’t want to turn this into an essay on why the series works but if there was ever an example of it, Furious 7 is it. I think that one of the important factors is sincerity.  Yes it is all goofy and ridiculous but the characters are all very serious and sincere about it and that comes through in the performances. It is easy to buy into the sense of family here because it feels very real from the cast and once you are on board with that then you are game to go wherever Dom wants to take you. There’s really not winking and nodding on the cast’s part to let you know that they understand that they are doing silly things and that allows for a certain level of buy in from the audience.

That sincerity leads to heart which the films have in spades. It is not just about fast cars and explosions but it is about a real sense of friendship and family and it is pretty easy to get caught up in all that. Certainly one could be cynical and ignore all that to just mock how over the top it is but to do that would be to miss out on something pretty great.

Aside from the real sense of love and family, there is also the fact that when the movie tries to be funny it genuinely is. Roman and Tej in particular bring a great sense of humor to the film and make for real moments of comedy. The flip side to that is that when it is not trying to be funny it is still pretty funny so you have the best of both worlds here. This is not a film or series that doesn’t know what it is. It is a film that has completely embraced what it is and allows itself to have fun while still meaning something in the end and that is a delicate balancing act.

As mentioned, the performances are a particular thing here so it would be hard to call it good or bad (although in the case of Ronda Rousey I will just say bad). What I can say is that I love what everyone does here and the action performances are incredible across the board while the cast does exactly what it should in the other moments. I have a really hard time saying that the acting is terrible when they make me care about the characters so much through their performances. I will just say the performances are very particular that is that.

Obviously Paul Walker’s death, which happened in the middle of filming, cannot be ignored and it is not ignored by the movie. The film is a very fitting and touching send off to the character and to the actor and I was very happy with what they did. I can’t imagine it was easy to finish the movie when such a major part of it was taken away but I am glad they did and the tribute to Walker seemed very heartfelt and fitting.

[Conclusion 10 out of 10]

There are probably people out there rolling their eyes at that score but you go to Fast and the Furious movies for a particular thing and this movie delivered that thing better than I every could have imagined. It is definitely not a type of film for every taste but if you liked any of the previous installments I would be shocked beyond words if you didn’t love this one. For myself, I drank the Kool-Aid a long time ago and I loved the hell out of this movie. I have no idea what they can possibly do with the next one but I am pretty excited to find out. For now, Furious 7 went above and beyond expectations and did so with real heart and spirit.