~ by Michelle Demaras ~
The highly anticipated sequel to “The Fast and the Furious” was theatrically released just two years after the first film. With more than double the budget, big things were expected by the audience. Some were skeptical about “2 Fast 2 Furious” because apart from Paul Walker, the entire cast was replaced with new characters. No Dom, Letty, Mia or Vince; just the ‘buster’.
On November 9th, I got to see “2 Fast 2 Furious” at the cinema to judge for myself if Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) carried the franchise forward. Our private screening started with the 6-minute short film called “The Turbocharged Prequel to 2 Fast 2 Furious” which provides a narrative bridge between the first two films. It shows our protagonist leaving his old life in L.A. behind, but he’s a wanted man for letting that criminal Dom Toretto go free. Yet in his new home of Miami, Brian has found a new roster of street racers, including this film’s coolest girl, Suki (Devon Aoki).
The movie starts with an incredible race through twisting downtown streets, ending with a jump over a draw bridge. Right after Brian’s big street racing win, the cops show up and arrest him. He’s offered a deal – help bust local drug lord Carter Verone, and Brian’s name will be cleared. He’s the perfect ‘undercover’ for the job of transporting ‘dirty’ money in a fast car. Who would suspect a well-known street racer is really a cop?
Brian is going to need help on this caper, so he conscripts his estranged childhood friend, Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) who’s currently under house arrest. There’s bad blood between them; years back, when Roman was arrested, officer Brian was there – yet he didn’t lift a finger to help his old friend. It’s the opposite of the Brian we know, the one who let Toretto go free at the end of the first F&F. For the ex-cop and the ex-con, this is an opportunity to clear their names, and clear the air between them.
The antagonist in “2 Fast 2 Furious” is Carter Verone (Cole Hauser) a heartless, violent Florida drug lord in really nice linen suits. His girlfriend Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes) is actually an undercover agent feeding information to the cops, while sleeping with the enemy. For the most part, Monica has to take a backseat and watch things go down, so she doesn’t blow her cover. She also serves as Brian’s new love interest, so not much of a strong female lead! She’s is on the movie poster, implying she’s an important character in the film. But Monica is just the pretty girl, hardly shoots anyone and doesn’t even drive a car!
Then there’s the character of Suki; easily the most iconic role in the film (girls still dress up as her for Halloween) despite her lack of screen time. Leading up to the film’s first race, Suki faces sexist comments from other drivers but beats those guys when she gets behind the wheel. Then after the race, Suki is subjected to suggestive comments from race organizer Tej Parker (Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges) yet suddenly she’s his girlfriend in the next scene. Come on! I know the F&F films aren’t about ‘girl-power’ but compared to the previous film’s female leads, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. The movie being is set it Miami means way more shots of bikini girls in swimming pools, which doesn’t add anything to the film. It made the omission of strong women like Letty and Mia from the first F&F a much bigger deal.
While the street racing and action scenes were as good as the first film, I couldn’t help but feel like the stakes were lower. Bad guys Johnny Tran (FF1) and Carter Verone (FF2) are shown as ruthless men, with little room for sympathy. However, it wasn’t the fight against Tran and the truckers which felt so intense in the first film — what was at stake was keeping Brian’s secret (he’s a cop) from the rest of the gang, his new family.
Conversely, Brian and Roman squashed their beef and were like two brothers for most of the film. While the last car chase with hundreds of tuner cars from the Miami car scene was spectacular, the ending didn’t have the tension of the first film. This was just about catching the bad guy.
Overall “2 Fast 2 Furious” managed to keep the drive and excitement of the first film, without feeling like a rerun. But without Dom, Mia and Letty, or even Brian’s journey to ‘the dark side’ the sequel lacked some gravitas.
Coming up on Sunday, December 7, our Fast Film Fest will screen “Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift” at the cinema. Again, with an all-new cast including fan-favourite Han Seoul-Oh. Is “Tokyo Drift” the start of the franchise’s drawn-out decline into action film nonsense, or is it actually the best movie in the series? Find out in three weeks.
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