Fast & Furious 7 Movie Review

"If you want to glimpse the future, you need only look over your shoulder at the past." So begins Fast and the Furious 7 with a surprisingly apt description of the movie to come.

This is no time for surprises or tinkering with the formula of Universal’s blockbuster franchise. Yet despite being aimed squarely at that segment of the movie watching population who like things that go vroom or boom (or preferably both) this movie still has much to offer.

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Don't get me wrong, there is a herculean suspension of disbelief required to sit through the jumping cars, parachuting cars, flying cars and, well everything to do with the cars.

But beneath the special effects, Fast & Furious 7 has a heart that is hard to match in franchises of its ilk, and it’s a heart that it wears on both of Dwayne Johnson's oversized sleeves.

To begin with, none of the film's good-guy ensemble cast feel the need to don super hero tights, find themselves described as multi-million dollar government built killing machines or turn out at any point to display wizard, werewolf or vampire like tendencies.

This is a group of friends, nah family (more on that later), brought together and propelled by nothing more than the desire to drive fast and protect each other from the many enemies that they seem so capable of making.

WATCH: 'Fast and Furious' Paul Walker Tribute

Despite briefly losing its way at Tokyo Drift, this is a franchise that has largely been built around the on and off screen bromance between Vin Diesel and Paul Walker and their onscreen alter egos, Dominic Toretto and Brian O’Connor.

Despite his own predictions of Oscar nominations, there's no doubt that Vin Diesel is a terrible actor and with a long list of leading roles there's no reason to expect that he’s going to get any better.

He delivers his most of his lines with the full emotional range of a baby that just filled its nappy; confused and uncomfortable, but ultimately happy that its over.

Yet as Toretto, leader of this rag tag group of well-intentioned international criminals, Diesel shows an emotional vulnerability that has become something of a hallmark of the Fast and Furious franchise.

This might be an action movie but it has a moral. And that moral, as we’re reminded in any scene involving Diesel’s Dominic Toretto, is family.

We start with Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw out to avenge the near death of his younger brother Owen (family) first by killing Han Seoul Oh - Toretto and O’Connor’s long time friend (family), and then by blowing up the home that Toretto shares with O'Connor and O'Connor's wife Mia, who’s also Toretto’s sister (did I mention family?), all set against the backdrop of O'Connor trying his best to adjust to his new role of protective father (was that family?) as Toretto waits patiently for his presumed dead but recently returned amnesic wife Letty to fall in love with him anew (family, family, family!).

But before I go getting all cynical - there's a great joke about the importance of sincerity in acting, it basically goes; the most important thing about acting is sincerity, because once you can fake that you’ve got it.

In an age where good marketing has become about co-opting the values of your target market and slapping them on to your product, the Fast & Furious franchise stands out as being a little different.

It wasn't just Diesel and Walker's on-and-off screen friendship or that Walker lived (and later died) with the same passion for fast cars as his onscreen character, it was that the movies captured the same spirit of the street car racing subculture that inspired the first movie.

That spirit, embodied by smugly satisfied friends who genuinely like their jobs or enjoy spending time at their antique terrarium making club, is borne from a deeper sense of connection amongst a community of people who share a passion and are drawn to connect with each other for neither profit nor gain but just to share.

The outpouring of grief that followed Paul Walker’s tragic death was not unusual in Hollywood terms, but I'd like to think it was heightened by the fact that through Fast & Furious we felt like we came a little closer to touching the humanity of a man that we never met but knew so well.

If you get the chance, go and see this movie. If you're not a fan of the series then please make an extra special effort to leave your cynicism and disbelief at home. This is the sort of movie you might need to choose to enjoy but it's a choice you won't regret.