Movie Review - 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

[Dave Gray]

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

Premise: A former cop gets the opportunity to clear his rap sheet by working undercover as a driver to bust a Miami drug lord.

Rating: 2 dumb.

This movie is considerably worse than its predecessor in pretty much every conceivable way.  The action sequences are less about racing and more in line with Cannonball-run-style silly stunts or 1970s James Bond car chases.  It's also filmed in a way that is not only a step back from the prior film, but also really fails in comparison to where cool driving and stunts started to go in the 2000s.  There is a weird, speed-racer CG to some of the sequences that is just odd and feels detached from any real world speed.  The stunts are over the top, but not really in a way that's so crazy it's fun.

There are three main relationships with the lead character and all three of them are dumber versions of stuff he dealt with in the first movie: His old friend, played by Tyrese, doesn't like or trust him, but the motivations seemed off.  Also, the turn to trust also isn't really caused by anything.  There is somewhat of a head-fake as to whether or not these characters will evolve and there aren't convictions to do that.  The character is a little bit cartoony and maniacally crazy, but he does deliver a funny moment or two.

The love interest, I can't quite wrap my head around.  She's a customs agent who is so deep undercover that she's banging the drug lord for a year.  ...but she's also somehow a love interest for our lead, but also doesn't know him -- it's all very odd.  In the first movie, she's just the cute sister -- it's a thread you can follow.

And then there's Paul Walker's relationship with the police.  It's as if they don't trust him, but then his old boss is there who hand-picked him.  I can't really tell if he's a cop or not or an informant.  And the motivation of "we can clean your record" is just ham-fisted and dumb.

Then, the side characters -- also dumb.  Ludicrous is in this movie for some reason, but he's not a racer -- he's kind of an organizer, but he seems to go around collecting money from people for gambling losses, but it's not really clear why people lost or if he'd bet against them.  It's just strange that a character that has a backstory for not being a racer and it doesn't seem to mean anything...just complications for no benefit.

Lastly, the main villain is a cartoon that doesn't seem to exist in the world and is so over-the-top powerful and immune to consequences that it's hard to apply stakes, which are all over the place.  It's avoiding death, it's getting money, it's cleaning your rap sheet, it's making amends with old friends, it's saving the girl....there's like 10 different reasons that the characters are doing what they're doing and none of them are very clear.

In the first movie, he was a cop trying to bust a guy.  It was a criminal scoring a heist.  Simple.

To its credit -- 1 hr 45 mins....this was before action movies got really long and bloated.  I may watch more of these, but this one wasn't very good, by comparison.

[Brian Fein]

The stunts are over the top, but not really in a way that's so crazy it's fun.

If you think the stunts are over the top in this movie - put on your safety belt. 

I hope you continue this series of film reviews.  I am interested to see how you evaluate the evolution of Tej (Ludacris's character).  I hope no one here spoils that for you...

[Dave Gray]

I've been thinking more about this movie throughout the day and I think that the core issue is that the whole thing is convoluted.

It doesn't really make sense on the surface why a drug lord would need super fast, bright colored racing cars moving money or drugs around a city.  There is some kind of "15 minute window" thing put into play, but it's never really explain how that works.  There is a crooked-ish cop involved somehow.  None of that is clear.

But even when you take that at face value, he doesn't just get a good driver, he has some outlandish contest for these dudes to race for it.  That also doesn't make sense, there is a cigar used as a maguffin, it further exposes this guy with a bunch of new racing dudes that know what he's up to as well as drawing a bunch of attention.

I realize that I'm over-analyzing, but movies that don't have a clear concise premise that makes sense fall apart well before you get into the details.  Nothing gels together because everything is on a faulty foundation.

[Spider-Dan]

Usually, I wind up preferring the second movie in a series out of the rest.  There's something about being able to jump right into a movie with your characters already established and the ground work already set, where you can immediately start doing cool stuff.  Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, Terminator 2, Matrix Reloaded... these are among my favorite movies ever.

But not this one.  This sequel is lame.

All the cast from the first movie (except Paul Walker, of course) were trying to capitalize on their popularity with other projects, so they brought in a whole new cast; this happened again with the third movie.  The car choices are weird, the plot is meh.  I didn't think they would make a third movie, and when they did, I DEFINITELY thought the franchise was done then.  Little did we know...

[Dave Gray]

I suspected that Tyrese was originally supposed to be Dom's character.  The two just have way too much of a similar backstory.  I looked into it a little bit and it appears that my suspicions were correct.  Vin Diesel didn't like the script and bailed because he didn't think it was a proper sequel...he was also becoming more leading man and moving to XXX.

I think with very little script doctoring, this movie could've been much, much better.  Also, more grounded stunt-based action, rather than tilt-shifting CG would've made it much better.

[Spider-Dan]

Vin Diesel didn't like the script and bailed because he didn't think it was a proper sequel...he was also becoming more leading man and moving to XXX.

[Dave Gray]

I think with very little script doctoring, this movie could've been much, much better.

After seeing Fast 5, I would like to double down on this statement.