2Fast 2Furious.

Still a great movie, and the DVD is superb.

Back when the Furious Film franchise was about outlaws driving cars (Instead of outlaws becoming super heroes like it is now), the second installment of The Fast and The Furious focuses on The Late Paul Walker’s, Brian O’Conner, due to Vin Diesel becoming a huge star with a inflated head that ask for too much money to come back to the franchise.

Which is why Roman Pearce was introduced. Literally feels like a  Black Dominic Toretto as he is an outlaw under house arrest (In a lot of ways continuing Toretto’s story from the first movie without Toretto). The situation is good for two reasons: One, it allowed Brian O’Conner to become the character we know and love. One of the reasons why Paul Walker’s death hit “Furiousoes” so hard was because Walker puts so much of himself in the character, which we really start seeing here. Something that was almost wiped out when Toretto came back in the mix in Fast and Furious, but we started seeing again in Fast Five.
And Two, it introduces Roman Pearce who is still a prime character in the franchise.

In 2Fast 2Furious (Cleaver title) Brian O’Conner is running from the law when his ex-boys at the police department catch up with him and offer him a pardon when the Costumes department needs his help as they need someone to go undercover to be a gateway driver for a drug lord, but Brian needs a second driver, so they allow him to recruit his friend from back in the day, Roman to be that second driver.

Getting over the fact that Vin is not in the movie (Especially back when this came out in 2003, because we were all hyped up on Diesel), I like the chemistry between Tyrese Gibson and Paul Walker, it was a  entertaining bromance, even when at the beginning of the movie when they were fighting because Roman, an ex-con did not like like the fact that his boy is an (ex)-cop. From the get go, Roman was a very colorful character, all the way down to his clothes which he changed often into brighter colors like he was modeling.  Though they are the best friends they had some interesting contradictions past the obvious black driver, white driver thing, with Roman being the flasher of the two even when selecting the car he would drive.

Adding to the mix is Agent Bilkins, Brian’s boss from the first movie. I like the character for what he was. Mostly background noise, but I like the interaction he has with Brian. Very calm and collected, he likes Brian enough to make sure customes comes to him with the deal so that he can get out of the mess he’s in.

I kinda wish he came back for the 4th installment and was Brian’s boss when he went into the FBI again, but I guess that would not have work, but only because I don’t think when making Furious Four they knew what a franchise was going to be and how cool it would be to keep all the folks in the franchise. Bilkins was the only other character from the original film other than Brain to come back, everyone else is new.

Like Tej Parker played by rapper Ludacris. At the time of filming 2 Fast, I herd rumors that they were going to bring Ja Rule back who played Erwin in the 1st movie to reprise his role, but that did not happen. I also herd that Ludacris out did 50 cent for the role of Tej Parker. Just imagine how different Tej Parker would be if he was 50 cent or if Erwin was the one they used? Well, I’m glad they picked Luda, Tej is definitely a highlight in the movie as the man on the streets when it comes to this street racing thing in Miami.

Also new to the clique is Eva Mendes who plays Monica Fuentes, a charater that would make two appearances in the Furious franchise (the other being in Fast Five but sadly only as an end credit cameo (Bringing some important information for the next film).

Unfortunately for Joanna Brewster who plays Mia, Dom’s sister, the filmmakers thought that Brian, who showed affection for Mia,  would need a new hot piece of ass in this film (Same shit happen to Letty in Fast Four when Dom found himself some new ass fast after she “died” and Fast Five when Dom’s hot ass from four became part of the team and he moved on to some new ass). Monica Fuentes is an  agent whose been undercover for so long her superiors are not sure weather she turned or not.

If anyone reading this is familiar with the TV show Miami  Vice, Monica seems to be in the same situation of equally hot Latina police detective  Gina Calabrese on the series. In order to go undercover for ten mouths pretending to be the drug dealer’s lust interest, there is no way she’s good enough to fight off his aggression for ten mouths. Monica is too hot to be not tapping that for that long, right? Although, the drug dealer’s animosity towards Brian  who to him seems to have captured her eye (Cause he does not know they are both cops), could mean that he’s frustrated, cause he’s not hitting that.

What is it with undercover police women in Miami, anyway? That Gina Calabrese chick from Miami Vice I was talking about? She practically got raped two times in the show’s run in order to keep her cover. One of these times was by Stanley Tucci who played a drug dealer who knew she was an undercover cop which is why he forced himself on her. Every time I see this 2Fast, all I can think is that Monica went above and beyond to take down a drug dealer who seems rich but not big enough for the game being played.

See, Roman and Brian went undercover to act as mules for this dude,  Carter Verone‘s drug money. Something he keeps in a house and is about one hundred thousand dollars. Maybe he moves this type of money every week, but still not sure that makes him a big enough target for Monica to be his whore. Cole Hauser who plays a drone was a pretty cool villain in this though

Sense 2Fast is about cars, I should give a mention to Devon Aoki‘s character, Suki, a hot chick with a cool anime influenced pink convertible. Though it was a small role, she was still one of the best drivers in the movie and the first driving sequence in the movie where she shows herself  off, was great.

Then there is Tej’s mechanic, Jimmy  who works at his shop. The kid is played by an Asian American rapper who I don’t know how big his career got after his one single, Speak Chinese, but he was a cool character as well.

Shout out of seasoned actor James Remar who plays Agent Markham.

So there you have it. From the beginning, The Fast and the Furious has always had a very diverse cast allowing it to appeal to everyone. One of the reasons the film franchise is up to grossing a billion per movie.

2 Fast 2 Furious was very different from the Fast and the Furious, thanks greatly to it’s director, John Singleton. A legendary well known filmmaker at the time of this film’s released it almost seemed strange that he would do the sequel to a cult hit, but thanks to him, Tyrese gets to be in the franchise. Tyrese seems to be his boy since they did Baby Boy together. Plus, Singleton brings more flare to the car culture that was dabbled upon in the first film(At least by comparison) . You can see it, the cars seem to be more decked out than the first film. He also improved the racing of the film. He changes the game for the 10 second drag race that was the original movie movie and added curves and bridge jumps to pump it up.

Plus, that Miami setting is vastly different that the frist movie, but not so different from the car culture of the first, which suits perfectly. All the things that make it different from the first movie really help to make it a good movie in it’s own right.

I must admit, one big flaw is how corny some of the dialog was. Some of the things said while Brian and Roman were driving their cars is super weak.

Now, I’m writing this post after watching this movie on DVD which I’ve never done before. Now I know DVD is an ancient form of watching movies, but it’s well worth it.

First off: their is a short silent film that you can play before watching the movie. The short tells you how Brian went from California to Miami, giving insight on the character that adds to the movie. It basically starts moments after Brian gives Dom the ten second car to get away. Those actions make Brian an outlaw, and he runs or rather drives across the country racing cars for a few bucks and then moving along. All the while we see Brian under the hood improving the car he is racing while trying to say ahead of the law, until he finally comes to Miami where the movie begins.

The production on this short called The Prelude to the Furious was so good it’s definitely worth mentioning. If you can find it on YouTube I would advice that you check it out cause it’s worth it. For Furiousoes, it’s a real insight on the type of driver Brian is. He loves imports (as we all know) and he’s as good under the hood as he is behind the wheel. Like I said, something that was not fully integrated again until Fast Five (Or maybe Fast Six, which also perfectly added his years as a law enforcer into his personality)

Secondly is the DVD menu in itself. A really good one if I say so myself,  like a video game the menu allows you to select whose car you want to get into and you can chose between Brian, Roman and Suki(Like I said, she’s an important driver in the film). You watch the movie and then you go the bonus features which gives you insight on the drivers, their cars, and their driving ability (The latter two would be something car fans would love to see).

It’s a great DVD for car lovers and “Furiousoes” alike, but the third reason to get the DVD is the audio commentary by the great John Singleton, who breaks down his film style he was doing to make the movie in a way that showed how the entire cast and crew were having fun while making this movie. I mean they have a behind the scenes Featurette doing the same thing, but Singleton’s audio commentary is just as good.

So while I love where the Fast and The Furious franchise went, don’t get me wrong, watching 2 Fast 2 Furious makes me so miss what it was, A simple franchise about how cool cars are.