Top Five: Reasons Fast & Furious 7 Will Rock

Ramses here with what will be my first article for ManlyMovie.  A Fast 7 piece breaking down why Fast & Furious 7 should be worth your time, even if you felt the recent ones weren’t.  I like all of them, everyone needs their Fast food (sorry), next to actual good movies, right?  Even seven full movies is extraordinary then the seven looking like the best yet is even more extraordinary.  But some still aren’t convinced.  Allow me…

1) Statham

Okay, so the cast of the recent movies (hell all of them) haven’t exactly been fan favourites among ManlyMovie regulars, but Statham… he is definitely a favourite.  I’ve looked at the hits for this site, he’s a big draw of the 420,541 hits since our September launch.  He’s in, and his character ain’t best pleased.  Some criticized the last movie’s lack of a real villain.  So how about the biggest current old school star out there right now?  He’s guaranteed to kick ass, at least if the director knows how to deploy him.  I expect some Transporter level mayhem.  Break a leg Statham…


2) Statham… Vs The Rock

With a cast that includes all of those usual regulars, which now includes The Rock, throwing Statham into the mix should create some fantastic possibilities.  No director in the world can put Jason Statham in a movie as the bad guy and The Rock in the same movie as a good guy… and not have them fight.  We are getting it, now that we know that Jason Statham and The Rock will fight.  Fans have also speculated that Statham will fight Vin Diesel too, based on recent pictures suggesting a likely confrontation.  This could be one for the ages…

3) Darker Tone

Does a picture say a thousand words?  I dunno about that, but this picture above ain’t got too many happy go lucky faces in it.  Even Tyrese Gibson, series joker, looks sombre.  Why?  Because it’s generally thought now that Fast & Furious 7 will be a revenge movie of sorts.  With more motivation and more intent.  We got a villain who means business and few things will piss a man off more than killing his brother.  Hey, this is a movie from the director of Saw (2004) after all.  Yeah, it’ll probably be PG-13, but I’m sure James Wan is going to test the certification people.  Perhaps an even harder cut will arrive on Blu Ray.

4) New Director

Speaking of James Wan, let’s talk about why his coming in is a good thing.  He’s a good director, check out Saw, Death Sentence and The Conjuring.  But the real reason for excitement is his promising of a grittier movie influenced by old 70s car chase flicks, basically like what is mentioned in this article:

James Wan is taking over the next movie, as you’ve probably heard.  Recently, he’s been talking to ‘Empire’ in an exclusive offline (’till now, heh, heh) candid interview on his vision for the franchise.  “I’m a big fan of old-school car chases.  One of my favourite movies of all time is just one big car chase: Spielberg’s Duel.”  Immediately encouraging, because that is oldschool.  Certainly too refined and mature for approximately 110 million of Fast 6’s dudebro audience. Wan continues… “I love how simple that movie is, and how brilliantly made and constructed and shot it is, on such a low budget.  I love that flm”. The key word here is ‘simple’, it seems that Wan understands that less is more.

From there, his words only get better.  “But I also love Speed, Duel… The French Connection and Speed would probably be my top three”.  Excellent chocies, Jimmy. 

5) Tony Jaa

Now come on.  He may not mean much to casual movie goers, but this guy is a known face among hardcore action fans.  Where he goes, they follow.  If you haven’t seen his movies we implore you to check them out (start with Ong Bak, you won’t regret it).  I’m so excited about Jaa being in this movie, I don’t even care how they use him – as long as he fights someone.  Even better, make him a villain and have he and Statham obliterate the rest of the ensemble.  Seems he’s ready for the big next stage of his career, yeah… he’s learning English.