New in Theaters April 03: Go Furious 7 or Go Home

By Chris Kavan - 04/02/15 at 07:42 AM CT

There is only one film opening wide for the first weekend in April, but there's a good reason everyone is giving it plenty of room A franchise doesn't often sport seven installments unless A) it has a high amount of interest or B) it has long gone straight to video. Lucky for movie-goers, we're going with A this time around. While the series can't boast a pedigree of Oscar-nominations or heaps of acting awards, what it can bring is excitment, action and lots of fun - check your brain at the door as sequences can get a bit hard to swallow, but if it's sheer entertainment you want - look no further.

FURIOUS 7 The last two Fast and Furious films have had a much different tone - a group effort, more similar to Oceans 11 than a simple street race. They have also upped the action quotient (sometimes to ludicrous heights - an endless runway, a tank chase) while still giving the characters a reason to show up (family - it always comes back to family). Furious 7, however, it also notable for being the final film of actor Paul Walker, who himself died in a car accident before the film was finished. While this aspect hasn't dominated marketing - the shadow of this loss has loomed large from both a film and acting standpoint. Because family plays such an important role in this series, it will be interesting to see how this plays out for Walker's character, Brian O'Conner. The other change is the addition of action icon Jason Statham, who has been added as the villain - the teaser as the end of the last film showed him offing Han (Sung Kang) in the streets of Tokyo before vowing to come after the rest of the team. It looks like Furious 7 is going to include a lot of near misses and close calls - and, I'm sure, not everyone is going to come out alive. It also looks like the ludicrous action is still intact with skydiving cars just the tip of the iceberg. But I, for one, have thoroughly enjoyed the last two Furious films and I don't see why this should be any different. If they can tone things down just a bit, it has a chance to be the best film in the franchise yet. I will see this weekend - but early reviews have been quite positive, so I have hope I will be rewarded this time around.


Furious 7 should easily dominate the weekend - but don't count out families continuing to support Home while horror film It Follows also continues to expand. I'll be back Sunday with the official results.

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