(In theaters, June 2003) Cars, crime and chicks in sunny Miami; what else could you ask for? Okay, so Vin Diesel is missing and so is a lot of the energy of the original The Fast And The Furious. But it doesn’t matter as much as you think: This time around, the cars look better, and if no one can outfox Michelle Rodriguez from the first film, Eva Mendes and Devon Aoki are totally appropriate eye-candy. Paul Walker doesn’t have to struggle under the shadow of Diesel, and he emerges as a mildly engaging protagonist. (The homo-erotic subtext of his character’s relationship with buddy Tyrone can be a little ridiculous at times, though; how many jealous glances can we tolerate before bursting out laughing?) It’s a shame that about half the car chases don’t really work; dodgy camera moves, overuse of CGI over stunt driving and over-chopped editing don’t help in building a gripping action scene. At least the two highway sequences are nifty. The last stunt is weak and so are many of the plot points before then, but 2 Fast 2 Furious goes straight in the guilty pleasures category; a fine way to spend a lazy evening.
(Second viewing, On DVD, March 2004) Fast cars, curvy women and sunny Miami: Even the second time around, it’s hard to be angry at this film even as the dialogue is painful, the action scenes aren’t particularly successful and the ending is lame. At least the DVD offers some consolation through a series of interesting making-of documentaries and a few extra car-related goodies. John Singleton’s tepid audio commentary does much to demonstrate the uninspired nature of the film’s production. Competent without being particularly commendable, adequate without being particularly satisfying. This one goes out straight to Eva Mendes fans and car buffs. Not that there’s anything wrong with being either.
(Third viewing, Streaming, December 2025) Roughly ten installment later, there’s little doubt that 2 Fast 2 Furious is the runt of the Fast and Furious franchise. Hurriedly put in production to capitalize on the first film’s box-office and missing the mark on several elements that would make the success of the film series, it’s a weak movie that does not deserve any pretension of it holding up. At best, the success of its many sequels give it a halo effect to help get past its worst moments. For fans of the series and its characters, this is the film that explains how Taj and Roman met, and how Brian lost his badge. You can even detect the series’ first foray into ludicrous high technology with the “EMP harpoons” used twice during the plot. It does have a few good action beats: the two racing sequences aren’t bad, and there are two highway sequences with good moments (even if the sequences as a whole aren’t particularly good and filmed in unusually muted fashion). The rest of the film, though, is much blander than one would expect. The Miami location is only used perfunctorily, while everything that touches Cole Hauser’s villain feels like it comes from an undistinguished straight-to-video police thriller (including a torture sequence that doesn’t fit with the series’ tone at all.) Most of all, though, is that the film barely seems to touch upon either car culture, big stunts, increasingly solid web of interpersonal relationships or effortless entertainment that would come to define the series. No wonder the later installments wouldn’t crib too many things from this one. (While I do regret not seeing Devon Aoki in other installments of the series, I gather that acting was more of a temporary thing for her, and she’s happy away from the screen.) There are many reasons why 2 Fast 2 Furious was fated to under-perform (hurried production, Vin Diesel’s hubris-driven decision not to return to the series, director John Singleton’s lack of affinity for the material, etc.) but the result is such a drag that it probably ends up being the most-skipped film in the Fast and Furious box-set.
