2 Fast 2 Furious
2003
Director: John
Singleton
Starring: Paul
Walker, Tyrese Gibson, Eva Mendes, Cole Hauser, James Remar, Chris “Ludacris”
Bridges, Devon Aoki
Rated PG-13
He did the stare and
drive on you, didn't he? He got that from me.
~Roman
Pearce
Fast & Furious Drinking Game: Take a sip of your beverage when any form of the
word “Bro” is used.
So, after viewing 2
Fast 2 Furious, the fear and apprehension of this series is growing strong
in me. This might be one of the dumbest big budget summer movies I have ever seen. This movie also reeks of being a sequel. It’s also a film that feels more interested
in selling a soundtrack than telling a story.
Seriously, there were like 8 heavily featured songs within the first
15-20 minutes.
Since Vin Diesel & Rob Cohen decided to add a different
shitty movie to the American cinema experience (XXX), the only route of continuity available was to follow Paul
Walker’s Brian O’Conner. And to team up we get,
a character that was obviously Dominic Toretto in an earlier draft, Roman
Pearce (Tyrese Gibson). I called the
first movie “bro-tastic” but damn they literally say the word “Bro” every 30
seconds. And I don’t remember this being
a trait of Brian at all in the first film.
And as if the acting of Paul Walker wasn’t bad enough, Tyrese brings a
whole new level of awful. He’s
absolutely terrible. The problem is, he’s
not aware of that as he brings a complete level of cocky arrogance in his performance
like he’s self high-fiving himself after every line delivery.
All the actors (sans Cole Hauser), reek of people who saw
the first movie and are trying to act like they are in it rather than just
playing characters. From the first race,
you feel like you are a part of a Fast
& The Furious fan film (this is a comment on the acting &
characters, not the race which itself is far better and more entertaining than
the races in the 1st film).
Not that I’m looking for masterpiece theater here, but something
passable would be nice. Even James
Remar, who I like, is over the top and ridiculous in this film. Perhaps he’s catering to what was being
asked.
I was excited to see John Singleton’s name as the
director. While this is a far worse film
than the first one, the direction is far better (don’t get me wrong, if I had
to choose at gunpoint, I’d still choose to watch the first film easily). All the car races are much more exciting and
done better. There’s also a highway
chase early on in the film that features an actual auto fatality which makes you
go “ouch”. I must give this film merit
that unlike the first film, it DOES deliver in seeing car races and car
action. The problem is, there’s not a
whole lot done with the car chases. They
are primarily just getting somewhere faster than your aggressor. Not much else is at stake. But still, from a technical side, I wish this
film was at least somewhat “eh”, because I might recommend it based on a few of
the car chases. It’s just everything
else is so damn terrible its not worth your time.
The romantic plot between Eva Mendes and Paul Walker is damn
near laughable. There is absolutely
nothing there. The only thing going is
that these 2 are attractive and they’re in the same movie. It makes you scratch your head constantly
throughout. There’s also supposed to be
this “is she/isn’t she” mole subplot in the movie and I never found myself caring
either way. If you can’t tell, aside for
some car action I really wasn’t into this movie.
So, I fear this isn’t my series. This movie was kind of the pits for me. Maybe this is some outside revenge on me for
making so many people sit through the Halloween,
Friday the 13th and Nightmare
on Elm Street movies over the years.
This thing just felt like a couple of the jock assholes you know in high
school who know nothing about film went out and made a movie and thought they
did something better than your film which was of the quality of Alien.
And the fact that it was a big hit just turns that knife. Thinking back to square one on this film, I
would have much rather the sequel followed Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto on an
adventure than Brian O’Conner. So, yeah,
I thought 2 Fast 2 Furious was really
dumb. I’m holding out hope that things
will be better in the 4th one where I know the band gets back
together. But til then, I still have one
more “in the middle” to sit through. If
you enjoyed this movie I’d really like to hear from you. Not in a cynical a-hole way, but maybe I’m
watching these movies the wrong way.
Please help me out or call me a jerk below.
Next Up: Fast & The Furious – Tokyo Drift
Bow Wow, what looks to be a reboot already, I hear there’s a
Diesel cameo and really I know nothing other than that
No comments:
Post a Comment