Entertainment
‘Fast & Furious 7’ – Fitting tribute to Paul Walker
Film: “Fast & Furious 7”; Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Kurt Russell, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Djimon Honsou and Lucas Black; Director: James Wan; Rating: **
The best part of the seventh edition of the “Fast & Furious” franchise is its last 10 minutes. Apart from the action, the film encapsulates the mood and sentiments of a team and pays a glowing tribute to Paul Walker, who was killed in a car accident, albeit unrelated to the film, in November 2013.
But to reach to this final 10 minutes of the film, one has to endure a barrage of outlandish ear-deafening action sequences, sprinkled with a few comical as well as emotional moments that take place across continents.
Nevertheless, “Furious 7” is a high octane, over-the-top, adventure caper, that is frivolous in nature. It definitely caters to its fans’ expectations.
The story takes off from where it left in the previous edition and from the very onset stresses on “family ties and friends”.
The narration begins with Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and the team. Haunted about their past, they are now trying to settle down to a sober lifestyle. But Deckard Shaw (Statham), who had lost his brother, is hell bent on avenging his brother’s death.
After numerous attempts to curb Shaw, Dominic and his team approach FBI Agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson). He is unfortunately holed up in a hospital with a bandaged arm and his daughter to monitor him.
Hobbs advises Dominic to seek the help of a secret CIA operative (Kurt Russell), who introduces himself as “Mr. Nobody”. The CIA agent agrees to oblige them, only if Dominic’s team would secure a sharp tracking device for the US government.
On the other hand, a group of mercenaries led by Jakande (Djimon Honsou), are also attempting to lay their hands on the tracking device.
Director James Wan, who had earlier given us a few horror movies like the “Saw” and “The Conjuring” series, has very resolutely delivered this action-packed film, keeping in tune with its pedigree.
Unfortunately, what makes the narration tedious, is the talk-heavy exposition and continuous loud action scenes, from start to finish. They numb your senses forcing you to even snatch forty winks. But when you are wide awake, you can relish some preposterous action sequences shot at post-card locales along with unusual stunts which include fisticuffs and street-style fighting. Some of these are nail-bitingly edgy.
The dialogues are crisp and tempered with the characteristic one-liners that have been often seen in the series. These are especially evident, during moments of one-upmanship, when the cast keeps ribbing their opponents, “too slow”. These serve as a reminder of what the film is about.
On the performance front, there is nothing exceptional to talk about. Emoting has never been a strong point of these action heroes. They deliver strong lines stoically and the ladies too are no better.
Visually too, alternating between shots of foot on the accelerator and the speedometer, the adrenaline rush of the speed thrills, is effectively created by the sound design and quick edits.
The songs with the lyrics, “Oh oh my, I couldn’t believe in my eyea” and the one at the very end, “We have come a long way about you, my friends” as background score is touching.
Overall, this film will only appeal to fans of the series.
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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