“You Can’t tell someone they love you.” On the surface most people would never expect to receive such a valuable lesson from a movie about racing cars, but any real racer will tell you, the “Fast And Furious” movies are about more than fast cars and crazy stunts, they are about family. As a courtesy to those who have yet to see “Furious 7”, this review will contain spoilers so continue at your own risk.

The 10,000lb elephant in the room needs to be addressed right away. Paul Walker’s death made some of the scenes in this movie hard to watch. Every time Walker’s character, Brian, crashed his car or was placed in a dangerous situation, reality couldn’t help but creep into my mind. There was a very uncomfortable scene at a funeral where Walker and Tyrese Gibson’s character Roman discussed their dismay over a friend’s murder and made a promise of no more funerals. Goosebumps. There were numerous other scenes where our heroes spoke cavalierly about death and seemed invincible, both traits are very common in action movies, but knowing what took place in reality tempered my disbelief at times. Hearing Walker speak about mortality was uncomfortable, but “Furious 7” was fun and exciting enough to make me forget about the real life tragedy of Walker’s untimely death most of the time.

It’s hard to be sad when you’re watching The Rock slam Jason Statham through a table, Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez race cars in the desert with Iggy Azalea, Tyrese and Ludacris drive cars out of a cargo plane in flight and a predator drone fly through the streets of Los Angeles. “Furious 7” had the best action sequence in the franchise to date. It is truly incredible how the team behind the “Fast And Furious” can continue to come up with so many different and unique driving stunts.

There is more to “Furious 7” and the franchise in general than just cool action scenes with fast cars. The characters really resonate with the audience, and the box office success of the movies proves this. The reason for this success is that these original characters come from every walk of life and represent multiple cultures. It’s easy to imagine the people you see on screen as people in your everyday life; Vin Diesel as the cool guy who lives down the street with his awesome car, Tyrese as your funny friend who always has your back and Walker as the varsity quarterback with a million dollar smile. Not only do the characters represent the world we all live in, they all seem to genuinely like each other on and off the screen. When Diesel talks about not having friends, but having family it’s genuine and believable. Somehow a team of racers who accomplish impossible stunts are the most real characters in the movies today.

The action and the friendships are showcased best when the characters are in Abu Dhabi. The scenes in that mystical desert locale are the best in the movie. While at a billionaire’s party (DJ’d by T-Pain of course) Tyrese’s charm was in full force, Ludacris had some great interactions with everyone and he even got a fight scene, Michelle Rodriguez fought real life MMA star Ronda Rousey and Vin and Walker had the best car stunt in the whole movie. Diesel drove a multimillion sports car off a skyscraper, straight through the adjacent skyscraper and into yet another skyscraper, all while a stunned Jason Statham looked on. There is no way I can do all of the above justice, but trust me everything in Abu Dhabi was electric.

Going into “Furious 7” I wondered how Paul Walker’s death would be handled, and as it turned out I had nothing to worry about. There was a very emotional tribute after all the action had wrapped up where each of the characters looked on as Paul Walker played with his movie son on a beach. Vin Diesel gave a touching monologue while driving along side Walker, who then split off onto a separate road. There was even a short montage of clips from the previous movies, and everything ended with the words “ For Paul” on the screen. It was very well done and very touching.

I don’t know what the future has in store for The Fast And Furious Franchise, but I do know I enjoyed Furious 7. It was a great time with characters I know and love doing the things they do best. I hope I get more “Fast and Furious” action in the future because “Furious 7 “gave me everything I wanted in a “Fast And Furious” movie. RIP Paul Walker.