Classic Movie Review: '2 Fast 2 Furious'

Who said you need a plot to make a movie? Certainly not the producers of the original Fast and The Furious. Grab a couple boy-toy Hollywood hunks, a couple hot babes and a whole lot of even hotter looking cars and you've got a movie. There was some mess about stealing and cops and undercover whatever. The only thing anyone remembers about the film is the cars.

So when Vin Diesel dropped out of the first Fast and the Furious sequel along with director Rob Cohen, the producers of 2 Fast 2 Furious didn't sweat for a second. All they needed were some even hotter cars and no one would notice the missing cast members. That they also went out and got pro director John Singleton was like touching up the paint on an already hot car.

Paul Walker returned for 2 Fast 2 Furious but that wasn't nearly as important as what car he was driving and in the film’s opening race scene, it's this light green sporty number. While the race that opens 2 Fast 2 Furious doesn't quite match the opening race of the first film, there is a very cool stunt involving a raised drawbridge. The plot returns Walker in the same mumbling Keanu Reeves impression as the first film, this time however he is an ex-cop having bee fired for having allowed Vin Diesel's character to escape.

Now having been picked up by Miami police after a street race, his ex-boss from LA asks him to lead an undercover operation, blah blah blah. All this means is that he gets an even cooler new car. As does his partner, a friend from childhood played by Tyrese. Oh but those cars have tracking devices so our crafty hero's obtain two more cars in another killer street racing scene involving two of the baddest muscle cars ever on screen.

To rip into 2 Fast 2 Furious for not having a plot would be like accusing the sky of being blue. If you go to a Fast and the Furious movie for a coherent story or artful storytelling then your pretensions have completely overcome you and you should spend the rest of your life watching European art films in black and white. 2 Fast 2 Furious is about cars, adrenaline, and the occasional beautiful wearing next to nothing. It's a Hot Rod magazine come to life.

So why did John Singleton direct material so obviously beneath him? Your guess is as good as any but if I had to guess, I’d say he wanted a $100 million dollar blockbuster to finance another project. Unfortunately for Singleton, he was not likely to get much of the credit for the success of 2 Fast 2 Furious. An amateur with a handy-cam could point at these awesome cars and get the same response. That's not to say that Singleton did a bad job on 2 Fast 2 Furious. Singleton invested far more directorial prowess into the film than was anywhere near necessary.

Tyrese was a strong addition to the Fast and Furious canon. Tyrese's strength lies in his ability to buy into the self-seriousness of the 'plot' of a Fast and Furious movie while playing up the silliness that has become the hallmark of this film series. Tyrese appears to be having so much fun in 2 Fast 2 Furious and he's brought that same attitude to each subsequent Fast adventure.

2 Fast 2 Furious is abysmal from the standpoint of true film criticism but, in its truest form, as mindless car porn, it's ingenious. The muscle cars and sporty racers with their nitrous oxide and amazing stunt driving are as exciting as any well made action movie. That John Singleton made the whole thing look professional was an unnecessary plus and shows what a great director he was.

F9 opens on Friday, June 25th.