In the Flesh: Furious 7

James Wan looked at Fast 6’s “too much of a good thing” philosophy and thought, “okay, but what if there was MORE?” I am sickened to report that the result, even subjected to Wan’s inability to hold a shot longer than three seconds, kind of works. It’s too long by half, often refuses to let its moments land, doesn’t have anything new to say about its characters, and it’s measurably uglier than any of Lin’s installments in the franchise, though still a solid cut above the first two films, but man… it really sells more is more as an ethos. The mountainside car chase which escalates repeatedly until the cars are literally driving down near-vertical slopes is a particular delight, mind-bendingly stupid and yet edge-of-your-seat compelling.

More than any one piece of spectacle, though, it’s Furious 7’s ability to keep moving that staves off the diminishing returns that plagued the sixth film. No sooner have we blown through a so-so action sequence pitting the Rock against Deckard Owen (Jason Statham) then we’re jumping cars between Abu Dhabi high rise towers and fleeing a predator drone through the streets of Los Angeles. Shots on net, rather than reliable points scored. There may be two dud scenes for every hit, but none of it lasts long enough to get bogged down in. Most of the excess fluff in series writer Chris Morgan’s script have been filed off after the last installment’s bloated, circuitous experiments with leaning more heavily on dialog, and even its self-seriousness (Diesel’s grave pronouncement that “this time, it isn’t just about going fast”) is funny enough to be forgivable.

Nathalie Emmanuel is a blast as elite hacker Ramsey, Statham works as the previous film’s antagonist’s vengeful brother, and Kurt Russell wanders amiably into the role of a cookie cutter government spook, a real general step up for the series’ supporting cast. We wrap up with a scene of oceanside bliss and for approximately the fourth time all is well for our heroes, whose names are once again cleared. Even the end of the Brian/Dom relationship manages to find a little pathos, the two characters splitting off in diverging directions at a literal fork in the road as credits roll. Is Furious 7 good? It certainly succeeds on its own terms, which are clearly all it cares about. If you want to kill a few hours watching a bunch of excitable grown-up boys play a 150 million-dollar game of Matchbox cars, you could do a lot worse.