OVERVIEW: The unstoppable global franchise built on speed delivers its best, biggest and boldest film yet as Furious 7 blasts onto Blu-ray™, DVD and On Demand on September 15, 2015 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Grossing over $1.5 billion dollars worldwide at the box office, Furious 7 tears up the screen with more gravity-defying stunts, adrenaline-fueled fight scenes and pulse-pounding action than ever before. The Blu-ray™ features the all new extended edition with even more explosive thrills, along with the official music video of the chart-topping “See You Again” performed by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth and over 90 minutes of exclusive bonus features, making an indispensable addition to the Fast franchise collection.

SYNOPSIS: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson lead the returning cast across the globe in their most gravity-defying and emotional adventure yet. Targeted by a cold-blooded black-ops assassin with a score to settle (Jason Statham), their only hope is to get behind the wheel again and secure an ingenious prototype tracking device. Facing their greatest threat yet in places as far away as Abu Dhabi and as familiar as the Los Angeles streets they call home, the crew must come together once again as a team, and as a family, to protect their own.

FILM REVIEW: It could be said that the entire Fast & Furious franchise has become nothing but an exercise in “one-upping” itself. However, starting with Fast Five‘s gravity-defying cliff jump, Justin Lin seemed to have taken to Fast & Furious 6 with every intention to blow his previous film’s scope away in a haze of NOS residue (and he did). And now Furious 7, directed by James Wan (Insidious and The Conjuring film series), seems to have met Lin’s goals in taking the franchise to the next level. Arguably, Lin’s automotive-acrobatics cements a fresh tone of “over-the-top” antics and raised the bar for future filmmakers to follow, hence, the “big shoes” Wan has to fill here. Nevertheless, Wan does seem to meet expectations on a grandiose scale.

Another thing that could be said about this latest effort is that the story feels a bit trivial. Sorta’ like the film is built on nothing but goofy one-liners, rubber-burning chase sequences, and wall-smashing fight scenes that seem to wanna emulate, but out-do previous Furious releases. However, while there might be some truth to this, I would argue that the entertainment value we see from start to finish far outweighs any supposed repetitiousness or over-indulging on the part of the franchise. 

While the last few films have seen the Fast and Furious family expanding, this time there’s a contraction, and not in the way you probably expect. The “family” feels smaller, and less vibrant. The Rock is great fun when he’s around, but that’s not so often. A new character shows some potential, but she’s primarily a passive participant, more an “eye-candy” role than an interesting character to look forward to in the continuation of the story.

So how does Furious 7 stack up against Lin’s previous releases of turbo-fueled butt-kickers? Let’s just say Wan deserves to be the directing the next installment, if there is one (which I would are there will be). He’ll certainly silence any doubters whom might just entertain the thought that his transition from the Horror genre is foolish. 

In summary, the boys and girls are back, and you’ll probably be glad that you are too. The previous scripts placed more of an emphasis on the plan that was pulling the team together, but this time around, it feels less consequential. The ensemble feels much smaller, and the film suffers a bit from the dizzying sequences (not that I’m complaining), nonetheless it certainly rises to the level of expectations we have of the franchise. Four and a half stars out of five are well deserved here and this flick is certainly a must-see with like-minded friends at the theaters.

**One side note to this latest release is the small, but cool tribute to the late great Paul Walker whom we will feel our hearts tug for, leading up to the rolling of the credits at the end of the movie. He’s gone much too soon and will surely be missed for his contributions to the franchise and the Arts on a whole. R.I.P. “Brian” –

BLU-RAY: The film is presented in widescreen in a 2.40:1 aspect ration preserving its theatrical format. The picture is just flawless. Not only the picture looks great in this release, also the sound it is good, a 7.1 Dolby Digital in English that provides a good complement to the picture. It also includes  English, French  and Spanish subtitles.

VIDEO:
Widescreen (2.40:1) 16x9

AUDIO:
English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1/Dolby Digital 2.0, Spanish DTS Surround 5.1, French DTS Surround 5.1

Subtitles - English SDH, Spanish and French

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Blu-ray™ unleashes the power of your HDTV and is the best way to watch movies at home, featuring 6X the picture resolution of DVD, exclusive extras and theater-quality surround sound.

DVD offers the flexibility and convenience of playing movies in more places, both at home and away.

DIGITAL HD with UltraViolet™ lets fans watch movies anywhere on their favorite devices. Users can instantly stream or download.

Extended Edition

Deleted Scenes

The Cars of Furious: The car coordinator and his team join the cast and filmmakers for a closer look at the film’s spectacular cars.

Flying Cars: People jump out of planes all the time, but not while sitting behind the wheel of a car. This entertaining featurette shows how theFurious 7 team pulled off this jaw-dropping sequence.

Tower Jumps: A look at how one of the most exciting stunt sequences of the film, the Abu Dhabi tower jumps, became a reality.

Inside the Fight: A combination of fight training footage and interviews takes viewers inside the fierce hand-to-hand fights.

Talking Fast: Director James Wan and the cast of Furious 7 break down the movie’s most memorable moments and chat about how the Fast franchise has evolved over the years.

“See You Again” Official Music Video Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth


Back to the Starting Line: Producer Neal Moritz, Chris Morgan and the cast join franchise newcomer director James Wan as they look back at how far the Franchise has come bring the latest installment to life.

Race Wars: Furious 7 brings the crew back to Race Wars, the iconic, fictional racing event from the very first film. Vin Diesel and a couple hundred friends are back for a full-throttle celebration of all things Fast with special guest-star Iggy Azalea, behind-the-scenes footage of the cars, the sweat and the girls.

Snatch and Grab: A behind the scenes look at shooting one of the premier action sequences in the franchise’s history.

Making of Fast & Furious Supercharged Ride