Review of 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) by Thomas D — 06 Apr 2017

I'm as big of a fan of the Fast & Furious as anybody, but there's no question the low point of the series is the 2nd and 3rd film. 2 Fast 2 Furious is in large part just a complete rehash of the first film, but without the fun action and fun cheesy lines. The film attempts to do both of those, but fails miserably.

Paul Walker is back as Brian O'Conner, the now former cop turned undercover agent, but instead of Dominic Toretto he's joined by Roman Pearce, played by Tyrese Gibson. Their chemistry is undeniable, but their acting? Yeah, it's not exactly Oscar caliber. Of course, I'm not expecting any of these movies to win academy awards, but I shouldn't cringe watching their acting for a good portion of the film. Eva Mendes also joins the cast this time, as a useless character that somewhat pines after O'Conner but is more or less just there as eye candy for the audience. Which pretty much describes the entire movie. It's nice to look at, but there's absolutely no point to this film.

O'Conner & Pearce are hired by the FBI to infiltrate and take down criminal, Carter Verone, who plans to sell drugs and steal money, I think. We don't learn much about Verone, and he's pretty much your standard prototypical B-movie villain. Again, those adjectives can describe the overall quality of the film, standard and prototypical. Besides an occasional drag race or bland action sequence, I'm not sure what's really happening in this film. Why do we even care?

It's the worst acted, written, and directed of the entire series, by far. When I go back and watch Tokyo Drift that could change, but I remember liking this film more the first time I watched it. Despite looking kind of neat, the action is sub-par. And that's the centerpiece of this franchise. If you're not already selling the film on acting or story, then you need something to keep my attention. Oh, and there's also this random torture scene that doesn't fit in at all with the rest of the film tonally. 2 Fast 2 Furious is borderline unwatchable.

+Beautiful locations & cars.

-But that amounts to nothing film-wise.

-Poor acting, writing, and directing.

-Rehash of the first film.

4.0/10.