Furious 7

The latest entry is neither the best (Fast Five) nor the worst (2 Fast 2 Furious) of the franchise. Taking place after the events of Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7 introduces Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) as the brother of Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), who the team took down in the last movie, and the man responsible for killing Han (Sung Kang) in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Now Shaw is targeting Hobbs (Dwayne "It's Okay to Call Me The Rock Again" Johnson) and every member of Dominic Toretto's (Vin Diesel) team.

Despite Paul Walker's death during filming, Brian O'Conner's role in the film isn't truncated thanks to the use of CGI and a little trick photography involving his two brothers. The film ends with a nice farewell for its fallen star although, despite discussion of making more Fast & Furious films, the character isn't killed off on-screen making you wonder what kind of role Brian could possibly play going forward.

As with all the previous movies, the strengths of the latest film are its stunts which get larger and more ridiculous. Like the last film, this one stretches all credibility during its climax.

In terms of stunts the series peaked during the safe robbery of Fast Five. The never-ending runaway of the last film and cars flying through the air here are ridiculous in the extreme. On a positive note Furious 7 delivers a pair of strong fight sequences pitting Statham up against The Rock and later Diesel. Both are better than the ultimately disappointing Diesel/Rock fight we got in Fast Five, although there's plenty of shaky quick-cut action scenes to go around this time as well.

If stunts have been the series' strength its weakness has always been its writing and acting. In his last film Walker is the same wooden actor fans have come to know and love making his dramatic moments harder to believe than his car flying through multiple buildings miles in the air. Jordana Brewster's decreasing role in the films continues here in a role that could just as easily been left on the cutting room floor. And Michelle Rodriguez is stuck with the amnesiac storyline while Nathalie Emmanuel is introduced as the new hot chic, taking the place of Gal Gadot (who appears only in a flashback), who is a computer hacker (yeah... just like Angelina Jolie in Hackers) whose Big Brother program provides a large detour in the plot and eventually a way for the team to track Shaw.

Furious 7 is an okay entry to the hit-and-miss franchise even if The Rock gets far less screentime than one would expect. With Hobbs laid up in the hospital Kurt Russell steps in as the team's new government buddy in a forgettable role that could just as easily been played by a complete unknown. Statham gives the series its first truly menacing bad guy since... well, to tell you the truth I can't remember anything specific about any villain. For your money you'll get fast cars (amped up on steroids for heavy-duty action scenes), some shaky dialogue, and a fitting farewell for one of the franchise's stars. Is it great? No. In fact overall its pretty average for even the low bar of being a Fast & Furious film, but it's furious enough to keep your interest for most of its 137-minute running time.