2 Fast 2 Furious

With the help of Paul Walker and Vin Diesel's chemistry and some intense racing scenes, Rob Cohen's The Fast and the Furious (2001) was an instant hit among racing fans. And like most franchises with critical financial success, a sequel started to be put into the works. Similar to many other sequels, it was distributed two years later and it's difficult to say whether it pleased fans as much as the first one did. According to this site, this is lowest score the franchise has. It wasn't bad at all but it was missing a few elements of the first movie, which left a more entertaining feeling.

The story follows ex-cop Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) back to Miami from Los Angeles where he's enjoying his time racing street cars only to be pulled back by the authorities that he dropped. Heading the authorities is Agent Bilkins (Thom Barry) from the first installment and this time he wants O'Conner back one more time to take down a drug lord. And O'Conner can't refuse because he'd go to jail if he didn't accept. Plus, if the drug lord is turned in, all of his criminal charges will disappear. Why does this plot sound like Vin Diesel's xXx (2002) plot line (except it doesn't deal with a drug lord)? Speaking of which, why didn't Vin Diesel return? That's one thing that this franchise consistently needs. Paul Walker is the central character but Vin Diesel's presence was the icing on the cake.

Is was nice though that the writers kept the continuity together. The characters do reference material from the first film which shows the producers want to keep the story going and not divert completely from the original. But if there's one thing that comes into question, it is the concept of getting caught having a love interest in the business. This happened in the first movie and it blew O'Conners cover. Here the same thing happens in a similar way. You'd think the lesson was learned. Sigh. The new interest is Eva Mendes and she plays her character well enough. Accompanying O'Conner is Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) an old friend who originally has a grudge for some of his own issues. Even with this though, their chemistry works well.

Playing the drug lord is another interesting actor - Cole Hauser. He has a very smooth deep voice and resembles a very young Tom Berenger. He's also able to make his character seem dangerous enough to hurt someone. That's it for characters. The music produced by David Arnold of Stargate (1994) sounded better than BT's score from the first film but it wasn't evident enough. Barely heard a thing. As for action scenes, the racing is still fast paced and contains much of the same film making as the first, which kept the feeling the same. Other than that, the story feels the same as before but without Vin Diesel.

It's not a bad follow up to the first movie, but not casting Vin Diesel wasn't smart - it's like missing a piece to a puzzle. Other than that, it's still a decent watch with better music and well-staged action sequences.

Undoubtedly this sequel suffers from the absence of Dom and the Toretto clan, but it still makes for a very enjoyable ride.

The plot is a little bit derivative of the first, following Brian on an undercover op, but it is a pretty fun story nonetheless.

We get to meet new characters Tej and Roman, who grow to become franchise regulars, and their introductions are very solid.

The direction is fairly slick. Some of the awkward choppy camera shots and whiplash inducing cuts remain, but there's plenty of impressive camera work in here too.

What I really enjoyed about this film though was the general tone. It is energetic and sleek and despite its flaws always carries a certain amount of charm and appeal.

What made the first "The Fast and the Furious" movie attracted fans besides the bad ass cars and competition on the streets was Vin Diesel's appearance as Dominic Toretta, a hotshot race driver who makes his money racing others in the streets; he was a rising star on the fame after doing such flicks such as "Saving Private Ryan", "The Iron Giant" and later doing "XXX".

At the end of the first movie, Vin's character Dominic flees away to Mexico where he wouldn't be in this sequel.

No matter, the series continues on.

"2 Fast 2 Furious" has Paul Walker reprising his role as Brian O'Conner, the one time agent who betrayed the enforcement agency by letting Dominic get away, is now a fugitive and being in a race competitions every night to make money. After being captured by the police, Brian is given a choice in either going to jail or helped the people he once work for in taking down a drug cartel dealer (Cole Hauser). Brian agrees under one condition that he gets his childhood friend Roman Pierce (Tyrese Gibson, Transformers) involved since he's into cars and knows his ways around tough people. They're also given an ally, the sexy Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes) who's not only an undercover agent but also posing as the enemy's mistress. Time will tell when all will be revealed.

"2 Fast 2 Furious" is directed by John Singleton of Boyz in the Hood fame where he manages to bring the same energy and high expectations of the first movie. There's more cars, more chase sequences, more babes and more cameos this time around with a high octane pace.

Overall, it's good.

2 Fast 2 Furious isn't quite as good as the first film but it's still a really good movie in its own right. The cast was great once again with Paul Walker returning to his role as Brian O'Connor and Tyrese Gibson and Eva Mendes adding new character dynamics. Tyrese in particular was great. If there's one thing the first film lacked it's that there wasn't much humor. It was a very serious film and while that's great, Tyrese's character, Roman Pearce, added some great laughs at some unexpected moments. The cinematic effects were much better in this film also. The only negatives were that some of the action sequences were a little overboard (Dukes of Hazard jump for example) and the dialogue had too much street car jargon to the extent that some of it felt forced. "That Yenko will snap a speedo in 5 seconds" is an example of the type of dialogue that doesn't actually feel genuine in its placement in the film. Nonetheless, a really good movie with solid acting and great action.

The absence of Vin Diesel is felt greatly in this film, as he and Paul Walker were a great team in the original film. I wasn't sure if I would like this film the first time I saw it, but Paul Walker was still great, as was Tyrese Gibson, playing Roman.

After this film, no one was certain about the future of the Fast franchise, not even Vin Diesel. There is a great storyline from this film that gives background on Brian O'Connor and Roman Pearce for future installments. This all culminates in the 2009 film, Fast & Furious.

I have to say, I really liked the jump onto Carter Verone's (Cole Hauser) yacht, that was really spectacular. I wonder how many takes it took to get that right. And the ejection seats in the car! Ouch! Overall, 2 Fast was not the best of the series, but it was really good nonetheless.