Since its arrival over a decade ago, each “Fast and Furious” film has had one goal: out-ridiculous the previous installment with car stunts unlike any others.

Dom (Vin Diesel) returns with a vengeance in “Furious 7”, which continues the exploits in the unstoppable franchise built on speed. (photo courtesy of Universal Pictures)

Easily, “Furious 7” makes the team’s rampage through Rio in “Fast Five” or the military-grade plane takedown in part 6 seem like amateur hour.

Skydiving pimped out cars, mountainside chases, out maneuvering drones and even jumping the occasional car from skyscraper to skyscraper … to skyscraper. What’s not to like?

To call these films dumb seems rather asinine; they never claim to be anything other than loud.

If you expected more, then you might be the real idiot here.

After their inception, these films seemed to run out of fuel with a lackluster sequel with an equally pathetic name, “2 Fast 2 Furious”, but then director Justin Lin revitalized the franchise, creating four solid additions. With part 7, the question is simple: could the next director, horror enthusiast James Wan (“Saw”, “Insidious” and “The Conjuring”), helming his first big-budget project, keep the explosions big and the chicas’ skirts short. He shamelessly tackles that last one — oh so shamelessly.

You’d think the plotline doesn’t matter, but these films somehow found a way to tie things together.

Granted, everything’s always outlandish and we might not care much about the particulars of each story, but the characters remain engaging and the overarching story remains interesting enough — not serious film interesting, but light-years more compelling than anything from Michael Bay and other soulless directors.

The late Paul Walker gives a moving performance as Brian O’Conner in “Furious 7”. (photo courtesy of Universal Pictures)

In case you forgot how things ended in part 6, a couple familiar characters passed on, and the family is stateside for the first time in years.

No more warrants — farewell to heists. But the past is fickle. Owen Shaw’s (Luke Evans) brother, Deckard (Jason Statham) wants vengeance, and he’s got the means to make it happen. I’m sure there’s a “Transporter” joke in here somewhere, but let’s say this: Statham is in another auto-film.

After killing one lead character (if you’ve seen “Tokyo Drift”, this death is a long time coming) and hospitalizing Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), Deckard sets his assassin-trained sights on Dominic (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker) and the rest of their crew.

He might be alone, but he’s a force they’ve never faced before.

Meanwhile, Dom and his love, Letty (Michele Rodriguez), are still working through Letty’s whole amnesia thing.

And Brian can’t quite cope with family life. He misses the bullets and thrills of their previous adventures.

Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Ludacris) are around as well, but they’re icing on the cake. This is Vin and Paul’s show.

But we do meet a couple newbies along the way. Taking a break from “Game of Thrones”, Nathalie Emmanuel plays Ramsey, a hacker whose latest invention might mean death for Dom’s crew.

And then we witness the return of Kurt Russell (OK, he didn’t really go anywhere, but once you’re off the A-list nobody really knows who you are anymore) as a secret agent simply known as Mr. Nobody, who introduces our car lovin’ Scooby gang to a whole new world of government secrets and high-stakes gambling with their lives.

Let’s get this out of the way. “Furious 7” isn’t the best in the franchise, but it’s easily the loudest. That’s a good thing. This one needed to shine, and the action sequences are a ridiculous sight to behold.

It lacks the re-watchability of say “Fast Five”, and the fan service to car culture (and all the apparent chauvinism of your average car magazine) could remind the most seasoned filmgoer that blockbusters are their own worst enemy.

But these films still include more diverse film casting than far too many other summer films.

And at least Rodriguez and various other strong female characters serve as solid counterpoints to all the voiceless, scantily clad models accenting various scenes that read like a music video.

As a film, “Furious 7” is five gears of fun, but it becomes something more as Walker’s last ride in the box office.

His death was especially tragic since he died not during a stunt on set but in a driving stunt at a charity event.

The film’s end is a moving experience.

You might think you know how it all ends, but you don’t. The filmmakers honor Walker in a wonderfully respectful way.

Say what you will about these films, but they offer more than most films that bypass $100 million on opening weekend, even with all the corny one-liners.