Furious 7

While hype for Furious 7 guaranteed it would make money, there were a lot of questions leading up to its release. How would the film handle the tragic and sudden passing of series favorite Paul Walker? What direction would the series go with the addition of Jason Statham? What role would Kurt Russell play? Thankfully for fans this was all handled surprisingly well.

After putting Owen Shaw in a coma following their runway shenanigans in Fast & Furious 6, Dom and company have an unexpected new enemy: Owen's former black ops brother Deckhard (Jason Statham). When Deckhard quickly kills Han and threatens to rest of Dom's street racing family, the crew will team with a government operative (Kurt Russell) to steal tech that will give away Shaw's location. But the question remains, even if the crew survives, how much longer will Brian and Mia stay in this life?

By now you know what I'm going to say. This movie is bananas from the acting to the set pieces and everyone plays their part. Is it the best in the series? That's pretty hard to say. The finale isn't as impressive as the middle, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's role is slightly decreased, and the globe-trotting fun feels notably more contrived this time around. Still there's plenty of reasons this movie stands out.

Best Series Villain To Date

For Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6 I understood why the bad guys weren't big names. The main cast might get decent money, but A-listers probably weren't lining up to be a villain in the The Fast & The Furious' fifth movie. But this time around they've got a major upgrade. Jason Statham's Shaw is not only the first big Hollywood name to play a Furious villain, but he's also the first one that feels like a true equal to any of Dom's family.

Not only does Statham bring bad-ass credibility, considering the laundry list of movie beatdowns he's given in his day, but it's also a treat for Statham fans to see him play a noteworthy villain for the first time. Add in fun added baddies like Tony Jaa as a henchman, Djimon Hounsou as an arms dealer, and Kurt freaking Russell as dual wielding government op and you've got a host of added fun.

Scenes You Won't Get In Anything Else

Increased budgets means bigger and better stunts each time around and this movie is no exception. This time around they drop cars out of planes, something they did for real, have a face off against a drone, jump a car between two buildings, with tons of hand to hand combat insanity added it for good measure. I've heard a lot of people say that these movies are like The Avengers with cars and I'm inclined to agree in the best way possible.

A Sweet Tribute to Paul Walker

If the Fast & Furious series rode into the sunset with this movie it would've been just fine because the send-off for Paul Walker's Brian O'Conner is moving in ways I didn't expect it to be. They don't kill him off, that would feel to on the nose, but rather let him go to domestic bliss with Mia and his son. And then they give him one last moment with Vin Diesel before some clips from Walker's moments in the series and voiceover begins. It's easily the most heartfelt moment of the entire series to date and I'm impressed with the level of sincerity and care they put into it.