Entertainment

Film Review: ‘Fast & Furious 7’

Published

10 years ago

April 2, 2015

Oakland Post

Ludacris, Michelle Rodriguez and Tyrese GIbson co-star in ‘Fast & Furious 7.’

By Dwight Brown
NNPA Film Critic

Walking into a theater to see the latest Fast & Furious episode is like saying hello to an old, well-oiled friend. Great and familiar cast, excellent script, superb production values and the direction is tight as a drum. Can’t say this is the best film of the franchise, because so many of them have been excellent. But it’s easily the most daring. Fasten your seat belts and test the airbags. This one accelerates real fast.

Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), a British black ops assassin, has a bug up his butt. Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew killed his brother and he is out for revenge. First stop is the office of CIA agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), where Shaw and Hobbs get into a fight that leaves the hulky agent broken. Next Shaw sends his blessings in the guise of a bomb to Dominic, his pal Brian (Paul Walker), his lady Mia (Jordana Brewster) and their kid. Kaboom!

Dom seeks answers. A government operative (Kurt Russell) has a plan. If Dom and his “family” hunt down a beta device called a Gods Eye, which is capable of tracking down anybody through aggregated surveillance cameras and audio feeds—even from cell phones, he’ll let them use it to catch Shaw. Says the operative, “It’s like a tracking device on steroids.” Says its inventor, Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), “it uses every camera eye and audio device in this hemisphere.” And off they go, into battle. Dom and his crew and their vehicles. To the mountains of Eastern Europe, to Japan, the Middle East and L.A.

Director James Wan (Saw and The Conjuring) steps up to the camera along side cinematographers Marc Spicer and Stephen F. Windon (Fast & Furious 6) and displays an exceptional dexterity for car chases, fistfights and brawls. He uses a lot of close ups, and that filmmaking strategy drags you into the characters, their actions and the movie. With the aide of editors Leigh Folsom Boyd, Dylan Highsmith, Kirk M. Morri and Christian Wagner, he assembles adrenalin-pumping footage that is near perfectly paced for 140 minutes.

The action sequences are spellbinding. Cars jump out of planes, roll down mountains, are pummeled by missiles and skid through buildings. The car crew jumps out of moving trucks onto cars, drive super charged classic cars and evade gunshots. Punches are thrown, tire irons swung and machine guns are wielded around like toys. There is a precision to the proceedings that is astounding, invigorating and over the top.

Screenwriter Chris Morgan, who penned four previous chapters, knows the drill. Personal drama (there are some awkward sentimental moments that linger too long), romance (Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez rekindle the love story between Dom and Letty), intrigue, revenge, evil doings, retribution and the final fight and chase scenes. He doesn’t let the characters evolve much, compared to the originally one conjured by Gary Scott Thompson in 2001. He’s more faithful to their personalities, relationships and group dynamics. There are millions of fans waiting for whiney Roman (Tyrese Gibson) to crack jokes and Tej (Ludacris) to have a tech solution for a problem, and Morgan doesn’t disappoint.

The direction, production elements and writing wouldn’t mean a thing if the cast wasn’t on their game, and they are. They’ve aged; fuller faces, softer muscles, and maybe they’ve slowed down a step or two. Diesel is laconic, strong, the alpha. Johnson has his customary bravura. Rodriguez has that perfect blend of strong Latina and vulnerable woman. Statham is a worthy villain. Kurt Russell is a welcome addition. If you didn’t know that Paul Walker had passed, you couldn’t guess from what’s on view that his work, stand-ins, his brother and movie magic filled out his entire role in the movie. It’s easy to see that this film is a homage to his spirit.

It’s hard to say this is the best action film every made, but worth that debate.

This spring when you walk into your theater to see Fast & Furious 7, you will walk out thinking you just saw the first blockbuster event movie of the summer – only it isn’t summer yet.

Wanna go for a ride?

Visit NNPA Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com.

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Arts and Culture

BOOK REVIEW: Love, Rita: An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss, and Legacy

When Bridgett M. Davis was in college, her sister Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

Published

12 hours ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Love Rita Book Cover. Courtesy of Harper.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: Bridgett M. Davis, c.2025, Harper, $29.99, 367 Pages

Take care.

Do it because you want to stay well, upright, and away from illness. Eat right, swallow your vitamins and hydrate, keep good habits and hygiene, and cross your fingers. Take care as much as you can because, as in the new book, “Love, Rita” by Bridgett M. Davis, your well-being is sometimes out of your hands.

It was a family story told often: when Davis was born, her sister, Rita, then four years old, stormed up to her crying newborn sibling and said, ‘Shut your … mouth!’

Rita, says Davis, didn’t want a little sister then. She already had two big sisters and a neighbor who was somewhat of a “sister,” and this baby was an irritation. As Davis grew, the feeling was mutual, although she always knew that Rita loved her.

Over the years, the sisters tried many times not to fight — on their own and at the urging of their mother — and though division was ever present, it eased when Rita went to college. Davis was still in high school then, and she admired her big sister.

She eagerly devoured frequent letters sent to her in the mail, signed, “Love, Rita.”

When Davis was in college herself, Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

First, they lost their father. Drugs then invaded the family and addiction stole two siblings. A sister and a young nephew were murdered in a domestic violence incident. Their mother was devastated; Rita’s lupus was an “added weight of her sorrow.”

After their mother died of colon cancer, Rita’s lupus took a turn for the worse.

“Did she even stand a chance?” Davis wrote in her journal.

“It just didn’t seem possible that she, someone so full of life, could die.”

Let’s start here: once you get past the prologue in “Love, Rita,” you may lose interest. Maybe.

Most of the stories that author Bridgett M. Davis shares are mildly interesting, nothing rare, mostly commonplace tales of growing up in the 1960s and ’70s with a sibling. There are a lot of these kinds of stories, and they tend to generally melt together. After about fifty pages of them, you might start to think about putting the book aside.

But don’t. Not quite yet.

In between those everyday tales, Davis occasionally writes about being an ailing Black woman in America, the incorrect assumptions made by doctors, the history of medical treatment for Black people (women in particular), attitudes, and mythologies. Those passages are now and then, interspersed, but worth scanning for.

This book is perhaps best for anyone with the patience for a slow-paced memoir, or anyone who loves a Black woman who’s ill or might be ill someday. If that’s you and you can read between the lines, then “Love, Rita” is a book to take in carefully.

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Activism

Faces Around the Bay: Author Karen Lewis Took the ‘Detour to Straight Street’

“My life has been a roller-coaster with an unlimited ride wristband! I was raised in Berkeley during the time of Ron Dellums, the Black Panthers, and People’s Park. I was a Hippie kid, my Auntie cut off all our hair so we could wear the natural styles like her and Angela Davis.

Published

12 hours ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Karen Lewis. Courtesy photo.

By Barbara Fluhrer

I met Karen Lewis on a park bench in Berkeley. She wrote her story on the spot.

I got married young, then ended up getting divorced, raising two boys into men. After my divorce, I had a stroke that left me blind and paralyzed. I was homeless, lost in a fog with blurred vision.

Jesus healed me! I now have two beautiful grandkids. At 61, this age and this stage, I am finally free indeed. Our Lord Jesus Christ saved my soul. I now know how to be still. I lay at his feet. I surrender and just rest. My life and every step on my path have already been ordered. So, I have learned in this life…it’s nice to be nice. No stressing, just blessings. Pray for the best and deal with the rest.

Nobody is perfect, so forgive quickly and love easily!”

Lewis’ book “Detour to Straight Street” is available on Amazon.

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Activism

S.F. Businesswomen Honor Trailblazers at 44th Annual Sojourner Truth Awards and Scholarship Luncheon

This year’s well-deserved award recipients were women who graciously and continuously have served and empowered the Bayview community and beyond.

Published

20 hours ago

April 27, 2025

Oakland Post

Carletta Jackson-Lane, 21st Western District governor of the National Association of the Business and Professional Women’s Club, Inc. sits with honoree Carol E. Tatum the 2025 Sojourner Truth Award recipient of the NAB&PW, Inc. Photo courtesy of Sheryl Smith.

By Rev. Dr. Rochelle Frazier
Special to The Post

On Saturday, April 19, the San Francisco Business and Professional Women’s Club (SFBPWC) held its sold-out 44th Annual Sojourner Truth Awards and Scholarship Luncheon at the Southeast Community Center at 1550 Evans Ave. in San Francisco.

The luncheon’s theme was “Moving Forward with a Purpose: From Trailblazers to Game Changers.”

This year’s well-deserved award recipients were women who graciously and continuously have served and empowered the Bayview community and beyond.

Carol Evora Tatum received the National Sojourner Truth Meritorious Service Award for her decades of leadership and dedicated community service.

Brittany Doyle, founder and CEO of WISE Health SF, was honored as the Businesswoman of the Year because of her insightful and innovative business acumen regarding community-centered health programs.

La Shon A. Walker was recognized as the Professional Woman of the Year for her community empowerment and leadership work as the vice president of Community Affairs at FivePoint.

The luncheon also provides an opportunity to present scholarships to well-deserving students. The scholarship awardees were Jayana Harbor and Zari Moore, both graduating from Immaculate Conception Academy, and London Robinson, who is graduating from Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School.

Harbor plans to attend Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland; Moore will attend Loyola University in New Orleans, and Robinson will attend Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

“The 44th Annual Sojourner Truth Awards and Scholarship Luncheon is more than a celebration,” said Cheryl Smith, president of SFBPWC. “It’s a tribute to the legacy of Black women who have paved the way and made a commitment to uplifting future generations. We are proud to honor extraordinary leaders in our community and invest in the bright minds who will carry us into the future.”