2 Fast 2 Furious
There’s a pretty common theme you tend to see with big movie franchises, specifically with ones that don’t come from an established source material, like comic books or a novel series. If the first movie is successful enough to warrant a sequel, that sequel will feel pressured to match what made the first film so successful. As a result, they will do one of two things: They will recreate everything from the first film in a different setting, or they will make everything new in order to keep the series fresh. In most cases, either route results in a product that falls short of matching the original, both in terms of quality and box office returns. In the case of 2 Fast 2 Furious, they managed to try both approaches, but the result was the same. This sequel may have performed better at the box office, but the quality took a noticeable dip.
2 Fast 2 Furious is the weirdly titled sequel to the 2001 hit The Fast and the Furious. In this outing, Brian O’Connor finds himself in Miami, FL living under the radar to avoid law enforcement. Unfortunately, he is found and recruited by the FBI and U.S. Customs to bring down known drug lord Carter Verone (Cole Hauser). If successful, his entire criminal record will be wiped clean. Brian accepts the deal, but only on one condition. He has to be able to work with his old friend Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson). After some convincing, Roman accepts the deal, being given the same reward as Brian, if successful.
It may seem odd to see such a drastic setting change from L.A. to Miami. That’s why it can be helpful to watch the short film that preludes this movie. It’s called The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious; a bit of a mouthful. This is a 6-minute short film that shows how Brian made his way from L.A. to Miami. Essentially, Brian makes his way across the country participating in street races to earn money. Along the way, he buys himself a new car and upgrades everything to make it the car you see in the full movie. It contains almost no dialogue. It saw limited theatrical release alongside 2 Fast 2 Furious. Plus, it was included in some collector’s editions of the first movie. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s required viewing to understand the full movie, but it does help explain why and how Brian is in Miami. Fun Fact: The car you see in this short film, as well as at the beginning of the full movie, was Paul Walker’s actual Nissan Skyline.
The idea that a sequel never lives up to the original isn’t always true. There are plenty of sequels that exceed expectations and are significant improvements over their predecessors. It all depends on how the filmmakers approach the project. In the case of 2 Fast 2 Furious, everything just feels lazy. It seems like the filmmakers wanted to get a sequel out as quickly as possible, so they just threw a bunch of stuff together and called it a movie. Much of the acting feels phoned in, certain characters are underdeveloped and underused, and a lot of the effects are constructed poorly. If they had stripped down the cast and given the remaining characters more to do, this could have been a much better film.
I don’t want to give the impression that this is a terrible movie that you should avoid. Honestly, it’s an enjoyable movie. Even though they aren’t given much to do, the minor characters area a big highlight. Chris “Ludacris” Bridges stands out as Tej Parker, a mechanic friend of Brian who is involved in much of Miami’s underground. I think Tej could have been utilized much more to improve the movie overall. Additionally, Eva Mendes portrays undercover Customs agent Monica Fuentes. Monica works with Carter Verone to help the FBI and U.S. Customs take him down. While she’s a likeable character, I feel like she was included mostly for added eye-candy and to have some weird romantic tension between her and Brian. Eva Mendes is believable enough as an undercover agent, but they could’ve focused more on that, rather than her character being this pseudo-love interest for Brian.
Additionally, the visuals are a vast improvement over The Fast and the Furious. In that one, everything seemed to have this yellow haze over it. Like I said in that review, it seemed like they wanted to emphasize the L.A. heat. In this movie, there are a lot more colors that really stand out. Nothing has some kind of haze over it, allowing all the colors to appear bright and vibrant. Where L.A. is shown to be hot and sweaty, Miami is shown to be sunny and beautiful. It’s not just the setting that stands out. Everything in this movie has a bold color scheme that makes it pleasant to watch. It really adds to the overall tone and feel of the movie.
This movie certainly doesn’t disappoint with its fast cars. The racing and chase sequences provide plenty of fast action that will keep you entertained. Sure, most of them probably contain a bit too many gear shift and pedal stomping edits, but it doesn’t take away from the overall sense of urgency. In addition to the fast edits, this movie also uses some computer assisted shots to showcase how fast the characters are going. You’ll see one of the better ones in the opening street race. However, after the opening race, there’s really only one other actual street race. The rest are more chase sequences, rather than actual street races. Nevertheless, they’re fun to watch and offer some fun interactions between the characters. Plus, Brian launching his car into a yacht makes for a great final stunt.
Bringing it back to my biggest gripe about the movie, the street races and car chases aren’t immune from the film’s laziness. This is apparent in the opening street race. One of the racers is Suki (Devon Aoki), a street racer friend of Brian and Tej. She drives a convertible and has the top down for the entire race. However, HER HAIR BARELY MOVES DURING THE ENTIRE RACE! I realize that probably felt aggressive, but this is so dumb. She’s clearly going over 100 mph, yet her hair blows around as if she only had a small portable fan in front of her face. This problem isn’t just with her, though. Several of the characters throughout the movie drive with their windows clearly down. However, what you see happening on screen isn’t necessarily matching the action that’s taking place. I realize the actors were just sitting in motionless cars and acting out all the speed, but make it at least somewhat believable.
As I mentioned before, the acting feels forced and uninspired. You notice this when you see certain characters deliver their lines. It’s as if they were by themselves on set because the director wanted to focus on other things. He just wanted to get the lines and move on. Paul Walker spends most of the movie walking and talking like some high school wannabe. Although, his chemistry with Tyrese Gibson comes through on screen well enough. It isn’t hard to believe that Brian and Roman are old friends, even though things are bit rocky at the beginning. Still, that doesn’t excuse some of the weird deliveries you see form Paul Walker and other actors. Much of Roman’s dialogue consists of different one-liners and wise cracks. This is something Tyrese Gibson does well, so it’s fun to watch in this movie.
If I had to give a simple example of this films laziness, I’d point to the subtitle of this review. I try to use a memorable line from the movie for each review. With 2 Fast 2 Furious, “We Hungry” is the best I could get. However, like I said, this movie isn’t terrible by any means. It just suffers from a studio wanting to cash in on the huge success of its predecessor. Rather than trying to make a good movie, they wanted to make a marketable movie. They just wanted to throw a bunch of stuff together and hope it made sense. There even seems to be some kind of hint that Carter Verone was planned to be a recurring character. Spoiler: We never see him again. Overall, there’s no reason to skip this movie. Your enjoyment of the franchise won’t diminish by watching this movie. Much of the film’s structure and delivery may be lazy. However, it’s fine if you are a fan of the franchise. Even if you’re not, there are plenty of fast cars and bikinis to keep people entertained.
