Movie Review: 2 Fast 2 Furious

Here's the scoop. Vin wanted too much money to reprise his role in this sequel to The Fast and the Furious and director Rob Cohen wouldn't stay with the films without Diesel so director John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood, Baby Boy) brought in R&B singer/actor Tyrese to pal around with hottie Paul Walker and the whole shebang moved from L.A. to Miami. All okay by Tyrese who wanted a fresh approach. He'd never even seen the original film but then Suki, the only female racer in the film, was played by Devon Aoki....who doesn't have a driver's license!

In 2 Fast 2 Furious, Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) who was kicked out of the LAPD at the end of The Fast and the Furious for letting street racer criminal Vin Diesel go, is living in Miami making a buck winning street races. After one high speed race, he's arrested and offered a deal. His record will be wiped clean if he helps take down a powerful druglord (Cole Hauser) by going undercover. Brian will do it but only with old childhood pal Roman Pearce (Tyrese) as his driving partner.

Roman and Brian infiltrate the drug mob and are hired to drive some drug money from one end of Florida to another. Aiding them (or is she?) is undercover customs agent Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes). Will the guys be successful or crash and burn?

Races in 2 Fast 2 Furious are hot, cars are cool and the Miami race scene is more colorful than L.A. The film even has a '70's vibe with a few big-poof afro dos and babes in bikinis and boots. The adrenalin-charged film looks and sounds very good....that is when somebody is racing, which is every excuse they get. Need a carton of milk? Send Paul Walker to the store at 120 mph! Outside the cars...watch out! The plot is every episode of "Miami Vice" you ever saw. Can anybody make a movie about Miami crime without a drug lord? Cole Hauser does a very good job as sleazy Carter Verone but his whole operation is beyond laughable. Okay, say you are a drug trafficker and you need to pick up some cash and move it to a pick up point. Would you hire two extremely hotshot, high profile race drivers and put them in the most conspicuous hot cars in Florida to race the money at top speed? Uh...I don't think so. This guy would be better off if he hired some kids to smuggle the money in their backpacks....it would certainly draw less attention from the law. Hey action pics are great but can't we have a believable plot too?

Tyrese and Paul come off fine as buddies but oddly Tyrese (of the great shirtless pecs), the less experienced actor, is more natural in the relationship than Walker who seems kind of wooden in comparison. You've got hot Eva Mendes (from Training Day) as a love interest but there's never a love scene! What a waste of blue-eyed Paul and the hot Latina.

But, if you just go for the cars, attitude, the pounding music or the scantily-clad racer chicks, none of this will matter to you. It's notable that many of the stunts involve real stuntmen in real cars...very little CGI and there's a fun "Dukes of Hazzard" style ending stunt that garners a laugh. So, it's your call whether you jump off the starting line and take this one in or head for a pit stop instead.