2 Fast 2 Furious
The sequel to the successful "The Fast and the Furious" found itself without its bankable star, Vin Diesel, nor its director, Rob Cohen. Instead, in comes John Singleton as director and a change in locale from Los Angeles to Miami. What results are the same things that made the first one work but not much else. Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) is out of the police force and now focused exclusively on cars. A police raid at a race strip rounds up Brian for the purpose of being part of an operation to bring down a drug operation led by Carter Verone. It is the police's belief that if Verone can be caught with drug money, he can be captured. Brian and his friend Roman (Tyrese) play the role of transporters; to bring the money down to the Florida Keys without being caught. The wild-card in the whole operation is undercover agent Monica Clemente (Eva Mendes), who may be playing both sides.

I must admit, I couldn't sit through the first one in just one sitting. I missed it in theatres. Watched roughly the first half on DVD and the other on some free preview from Starz. Here, ignoring the awful plot, the racing scenes and the added comic relief by Tyrese makes this one at least watchable at the way through. But the material that the actors must work through treats them and their cars as just eye candy. The entire plot point of transporting the money seems to be completely unnecessary since with all the insiders he has in the police department and the security he has, it seems Verone could have taken the money himself instead of bringing in middlemen. The customs agents are complete idiots right from the start with their assumption that Brian and Roman were speeding off instead of doing their job. And the big climax of hundreds of cars overwhelming the police force could have been scaled down a bit. In a word and a number, it was 2 ridiculous. But when you do step into a theatre to see it, you're in for a fun ride. 2 stars