Throwback Thursday Review: '2 Fast 2 Furious'

This week's Throwback Thursday Review is over 2 Fast 2 Furious as I continue my series of Fast & Furious reviews. Reviews you can expect for the remainder of the year include Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Collateral Beauty, Passengers, Sing, Assassin's Creed, Fences, and Throwback Thursday Reviews over The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Fast & Furious.

'2 Fast 2 Furious' Review

2 Fast 2 Furious is the subsequent installment in the Fast & Furious franchise following up The Fast and the Furious centered on ex-cop Brian O'Connor who's moved to Miami in hopes of starting anew. When he's approached by the FBI, he then must team up with former friend Roman Pierce to bust a prosperous drug dealer and clear both their records. 

John Singleton directed the sequel only to change up the formula by adding a buddy cop element, and while it's a laughable attempt it does at least shake things up. 2 Fast 2 Furious keeps up the streak established in the original; pitiful performances and a ridiculous script. Again, 2 Fast 2 Furious hasn't aged well; the CGI is dreadful, the early 2000s R & B soundtrack from David Arnold is poppy, and it still insists of being mindless high-speed entertainment. 

Michael Brandt and Derek Haas wrote up a screenplay that's self aware of how stupid it is as the dialogue is corny and the story feels like a video game mission. The cast fill the  one-dimensional characters but don't do much for their personalities. 

Paul Walker returns as Brian O'Connor and try as he might just falls flat onscreen. Walker says the cheesy dialogue but it just doesn't work because he lacks charisma. Tyrese Gibson on the other hand is as hammy as it gets in the role of Roman Pierce and manages to actually make it kind of work keeping this movie's engine running, it's no surprise he was brought back for later installments. Ludacris keeps it cool as Tej but has little to actually do aside from serve as a connection for O'Connor to run to when he needs assistance. 

Eva Mendes is about as sexualized as it gets in her role with little overall importance in the grand scheme of things. Cole Hauser plays Carter Verone as a fairly one dimensional villain with practically no motivation, he really doesn't add much to the proceedigs aside from being an antagonist.

2 Fast 2 Furious feels like a Need For Speed video game mixed with Lethal Weapon, but manages to be worse than both.

Film Assessment: D

'Furious 7' Review

I saw Furious 7 recently and really enjoyed it. I believe the best parts of the film were the crazy stunts action scenes, and the performances. The franchise has really changed throughout it's seven films with a greater focus on crazy stunts and action scenes and less focus on car races. The action scenes are even larger and more convoluted than they were in the last installment with a few major scenes that were showcased in the trailers featuring cars dropping from an airplane, a car jumping across two buildings. Going into the film I was worried all of the big action scene were spoiled but there is much more to these scenes than what is shown in the trailers. The performances in the film were also very enjoyable. I really enjoyed Michelle Rodriguez and Vin Diesel's chemistry as both are quite enjoyable to see onscreen together. Tyree Gibson does what he dopes best and delivers some hilarious lines and is mainly in the film for comedy like the previous installments. Ludacris is also hilarious and it is fun to watch him tease Gibson's character. Jason Statham delivers a very convincing performance as the film's villain but seems to provide more of a "Winter Soldier" role to the story as a trained spec ops agent that seems to be in the right place at the right time merely seeking revenge. The Rock delivers his cheesy lines with a lot of gusto however be aware that the Rock is not as large a part of this film as he has been in the previous two installments. And I am aware that Paul Walker didn't actually film all of his scenes due to his tragic death but his character has some of the best action and fight scenes. I will say that they handled the Paul Walker situation perfectly with a touching sendoff with a montage of clips that featured him from the previous Fast And Furious films. I am not necessarily connected to the franchise given that the first Fast and Furious film I saw was Fast Five however I did cry because of the suggested bigger picture and larger meaning to this scene and thought it was the best way for Paul Walker to have exited the franchise in a way that doesn't come across as offensive or a cruel version of Paul Walker's actual death from a car crash.  Overall, Furious 7 is definitely the best installment of the franchise so far and I do think this film provides a nice ending to the franchise but after a $143 million opening box office this weekend I doubt the franchise will end soon. I highly suggest watching the film if you are a fan of action films, Fast and Furious films, or want to watch Paul Walker one last time.