My, how far The Fast and the Furious franchise has come. What started as a Point Break knockoff centered on the world of illegal street racing has, somewhere over the last 14 years, developed into that rarest of beasts: a blockbuster Hollywood franchise that actually improves with age.

After a couple of cinematic detours in 2 Fast 2 Furious and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the series wisely returned to its roots with the fourth entry (simply titled Fast & Furious) in 2009, bringing back the original cast and refocusing back on the relationship between franchise leads Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker). Subsequent films have built upon that rediscovered foundation, and despite a number of challenges both onscreen and off, Fast & Furious 7 (or just Furious 7, if you’re down with that) continues the series’ evolution and nicely ties up this era of the series.

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