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2 Fast 2 Furious is more like a film in the same
genre as the original The Fast And The Furious than
a direct sequel. The only sense of continuity comes from the
fast cars and actor Paul Walker, who portrays Brian
O’Connor. The name and the actor are the only similarities
borne by the Brian O’Connor character between the two films.
It is as if the movie has entered an alternate dimension from
the original The Fast And The Furious, in this case
the alternate dimension is called Miami.
2 Fast 2 Furious starts with a race down the streets
of Miami, allowing the reintroduction of former LAPD officer
and now full-time speed racer, Brian O’Connor. Too bad for
Brian the cops crash the party and use futuristic electro-magnetic
pulsing rifles (!) to disable his Nissan Skyline and bring
him out of retirement. The customs department needs him to
aid agent Monica Fuentes (Mendes) in infiltrating a
drug empire run by Carter Verone (Hauser). Surrounded
by totally incompetent federal agents, Brian turns to former
convict and childhood friend Roman Pierce (Tyrese)
for back-up.
The criminals conscripted into crime fighting works much
better than the undercover cop/divided loyalties angle of
the original movie. Also it allows the movie to keep moving
along without any of the embarrassing acting attempts from
the cast which plagued the last production. None of the actors
seem to have more than one facial expression, especially Paul
Walker, who sports a pseudo-Zen surfer look all movie. The
wardrobe department must not have been paid any money because
Brian constantly appears dressed like a high school student.
2 Fast 2 Furious follows the KISS rule of filmmaking—Keep
It Simple, Stupid—with an emphasis on the stupid. There are
no attempts to use car racing as a metaphor for how to live
your life or any of that nonsense; just lots of car chases,
often for the most frivolous of reasons. The cars are in and
of themselves things of incredible beauty, but the car races
could have used a little improvement. They don’t have enough
point-of-view camera shots, instead opting for close-ups of
the drivers’ squinty eyes and clips of their feet as they
shift gears. This is not exciting. It’s somewhat incredible
that people would carry on any sort of conversation while
barreling down the road at 100-plus miles an hour, but the
bad dialogue without the distractions of car racing is the
far inferior alternative. John Singleton wisely fills
the screen with eye candy at all times, either in the form
of Eva Mendes or any other of the Miami bikini babes in skimpy
outfits, and Tyrese takes his shirt off at least once. With
its PG-13 rating, the car chases and stunts feel cribbed from
“The Dukes of Hazzard” or The Blues Brothers, where
people have terrible car crashes and then walk away completely
unscathed.
Director John Singleton said he had wanted to make a lightweight,
popcorn-munching movie and without a doubt this is lightweight.
2 Fast 2 Furious raises the question, “How light is
too light?” If your brain is turned off for too long will
it be able to be turned back on without any negative consequences?
This movie is lighter than air, lighter than helium, lighter
than the very particles of ether that float through space.
With a featherweight plot and horrible ethnic stereotypes
for supporting characters, by the time 2 Fast 2 Furious
reaches its predictable conclusion (at least it has an ending
unlike the first movie) we are 2 Bored 2 Care.
—Woodrow Bogucki
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