James Wan tried to make me cry. I’ll admit that I’m not the manliest man to begin with. I often cry during Casablanca. However, those tears are triggered by the meaning I pour into the film, the history of when and why I first discovered it and some legit acting across the board. Bogart is the real deal. Paul Walker is not. His death was tragic and very much in the vein of the Fast & Furious franchise, so that sucks. Still, I never much liked or respected him as an actor. That is why it pains me to recognize that James Wan go so deep into my head that I was choking up in the last ten minutes of Furious 7. I hate you James Wan. I kind of adore you too.
Furious 7 is not a good movie. It is a pretty collection of over-the-top stunts wrapped around a paper thin and barely followable plotline like a pig in a blanket. The premise of the story is that the villain from Fast 6 had a older bad ass brother. To prove just how bad ass they cast Jason Statham and made his first scene one where he is talking to his laid up bro (not dead–that spells sequel or spin off with the Rock). As the camera pans out we see the big bro has just whupped an elite SWAT platoon’s ass and destroyed the hospital just to get to his bro. He did this alone, mind you.
Thus begins the wild senseless action porn that is Furious 7.
The movie was a fun and fairly useless ride, but in the last 10 minutes the director, James Wan, comes to life with a poignant tribute to Paul Walker that doesn’t even make sense in the context of the senseless film, but really yanks deeply at the tear ducts and calls forth a stream of wow. See it, just for that.
Some Thoughts:
- George Washington gave the shortest inauguration speech in American history back in 1793. This was the same year the first US Hot air balloon was launched, coincidentally the last time on record an American president wasn’t full of hot air.