VIN DIESEL & PAUL WALKER IN FURIOUS 7

2015 rating: ***1/2

Sad irony how Paul Walker died, riding shotgun in a really fast car, when the 7th and most daring and outrageous FAST AND THE FURIOUS titled FURIOUS 7 is all about cars involved in extremely dangerous stunts, from falling out of airplanes to leaping from building to building to building, and the story keeps rolling… and then some… without a single hitch.

What 7 is to the entire franchise can be compared to MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL, and not only because there’s a sequence taking place in the Arab Emirates. It's a straight-out action flick while the cars, and the characters… really one in the same… are but instruments being carried by instead of literally driving the plot, handed-off onto various agendas: first to rescue a hacker and then to find the main bad guy, played by Jason Statham, related to the previous villain and seeking hardcore revenge.

Paul Walker

The biggest question is: How will the late Paul Walker bow out of the series? Upon his death it was reported he had only been involved with half the shooting. Must have been a worthy half since his Brian O’Conner is always right there with Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto and the rest of the gang including the ingénue with partial amnesia and two polar opposites constantly at odds. But the closeness Brian's gained with his wife and son may provide a clue to his eventual fate.

So for fans of the series, this will definitely be a worthy climax (although obviously not a conclusion) – and for those who don’t care much for the hip-hop MTV style testosterone of the previous ventures (like yours truly), there’s a lot to enjoy in a franchise that’s become so unbelievably farfetched, it all seems completely believable, somehow.