Nothing says Easter like heading to the Cinerama Dome for an early showing of Furious 7. Joking aside, I usually do traditionally celebrate holidays with a trip to a movie theatre. It's a family tradition that has stuck. This was the first year that a diet has prevented me from indulging in my much beloved Cadbury Creme eggs, so I needed an action flick to take my mind off of chocolate.

PLOT - Life for Dom (Vin Diesel) and his crew is thrust into turmoil, when Brit, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) is set on getting vengeance for his comatose brother. Shaw kicks off his spree by attacking Hobbs ( Dwayne Johnson), blowing up Brian's (Paul Walker) house and killing Han in Tokyo. The group is approached by mysterious agent (Kurt Russell), who makes a deal with them. If they help him recover Ramsey ( Nathalie Emmanuel), a hacker kidnapped by a terrorist group, he will allow them to use her hacking device to find Shaw. The plot to retrieve Ramsey will be their most daring adventure yet and they must act quickly before Shaw enacts more of his vengeance.

LIKE - I've seen a few of the Fast and Furious films, so I had an idea of what to expect. Honestly, this isn't my typical movie pick. Like the others in the franchise, Furious 7 is highly entertaining and not at all plausible. Even though the trailers gave away some of the best action sequences, I was still on the edge of my seat. In particular, the scenes where they are trying to rescue Ramsey, are very intense and exciting.

I got a kick out of the dialogue. This is the type of film where the characters pause in the middle of a life and death battle, to give a cheesy one-liner. They are ridiculous and wonderful. The overall feel is that this movie never takes itself too seriously and that's why it's fun. It's cotton candy. The only truly serious moment is at the very end of the movie, when they did a tribute to Paul Walker and his character. It's sentimental and I'm positive that if Walker hadn't died, this would not have been the ending. It's forgivable in light of the circumstances.

DISLIKE - It's long, nearly two and half hours and it feels it. I was enjoying the film until the final battle sequence in Downtown Los Angeles. It's just too much, even for a film that is completely over-the-top. It crossed the line. 

RECOMMEND - Furious 7 is a must if you're a fan of the franchise. If not, wait until it hits home rentals. It's a good escapist movie, but not an overall great film. It felt like this should have been a summer release, but that the studios didn't think that it would do well against stronger movies. If you haven't seen the other films, you can watch this independently, as it was easy to figure out the backstory.