Plot: Former undercover cop Brian O’Connor
(Paul Walker) is brought back in by customs to catch an international drug
dealer in Miami.
Review: Two years after the first film,
Paul Walker came back for the terribly named 2 Fast 2 Furious, he was basically
the only cast member from the first film to return. You can’t really blame
them; this movie was weak and forgettable. The plot felt like they were trying to
copy the first one but without any of the charm of that original film. It also
had a somehow even weaker villain Carter Verone played by Cole Hauser. It’s
strange as Hauser is generally a good actor, but it really felt like here he
was just sleepwalking. He was supposed to be a threat and I didn't quite
understand if he was meant to be a South American drug dealer, and it didn’t
matter to the story anyway.
Our
hero Brian had the whole movie to himself without a strong co-lead like Vin
Diesel as he did in the original. This time he has enlisted Roman Pearce played
by Tyrese Gibson to help him out. Tyrese is of course completely different from
Diesel, their characters are completely different, and when he was in badass
mode he was a good addition to the film. However, when he started getting into
'gangsta' mode and be funny, he just did not work. His comedic antics did
improve in the franchise's future sequels, but at this point he hadn’t
perfected it. Eva Mendes plays a fellow undercover agent Monica Fuentes and
potential love interest for Walker, unfortunately she was just there though. It
felt like they needed a love interest, and that felt like that was the only
reason for her to exist.
This
movie had to also shoehorn in some street racing, isn't that meant to be the
point originally of The Fast And The Furious films? It didn’t make all that
much sense to be honest, but at least we got Ludicrous and his crew added to
the movie, they were a decent comedic addition and made the cast feel larger
and more complete. At one point near the end they help orchestrate this
distraction that feels like it came from a kid’s movie, with stupid cops who
just aren’t cool enough to catch these smooth criminals.
Ultimately,
this movie will be forgotten not long after watching it. There were some half
decent action scenes but nothing that was as good as in the first one. They
tried to go bigger and crazier with some of the action but it did not have the
impact that the first did and felt silly for the most part. Of course the
series becomes even more insane as time goes on but they totally own it with
those films, whereas here they are sheepishly trying to repeat the formula as
the first one was such a big hit.
Score: 4.5/10
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