Buckle up hot rodders and get ready for another piece of cinematic bubblegum to chew on with "2 Fast 2 Furious", the sequel to 2001's summer sleeper hit "The Fast and the Furious". Some people wondered if this sequel could sustain itself without its original superstar Vin Diesel and director Rob Cohen who wanted nothing to do with making it, and the answer is clear, it's all about the cars not the stars. So out with the old and in with the new. Director John Singleton and celebrity model Tyrese step in and come through with a punchy comic-book follow-up that's as good if not better than the original.

Paul Walker is back as Brian O'Conner the squeaky clean white kid who loves street racing and gets tied into working for the law. Ludacris replaces Ja Rule as the hiphop superstar in a supporting role, and this movie shakes and moves anytime he's on-screen.

While there's an emphasis on the paid product placement cars, there are plenty of other sweet wheels to savor. Flash imports and badass muscle machines, this is a gasoline powered love letter to car culture, and all the people who love to drive fast and take chances. This "Fast and Furious" world is an amped up color filled racecourse where hotties in spanky pants get down with the muscle bound dudes, and flex their horsepower together, in tricked out super cars cranking up the bass on their out of this world stereo systems that take over the trunks of their cars.

I wish these "Fast and Furious" films focused on the car culture scene more and less on the trumped up cops and robbers plot forced upon it. Besides making a story that might hit closer to home for people, its less likely to have the inexcusable and out of place gory turn that the "2 Fast 2 Furious" cops story takes.

About two thirds of the way through the movie, "2 Fast 2 Furious" slams into a jarring speed bump on its otherwise light-hearted ride. A gruesome sequence involving our villain, a bucket and a rat is so graphic and disturbing that you have wonder if they switched reels on you. What this type of "Reservoir Dogs" like violence is doing in a fluffy sodapop flick like this is beyond me and I am shocked that the studios let this scene off the editing room floor where it belongs. So when our heroes are asked to go into the back room at the club, take the clue and go grab yourself some popcorn and check the meter on your tricked out ride parked outside.

Its all about the cars anyways, and you'll make it back in time to catch the scene that will make Vin Diesel wonder if his "XXX" GTO can jump as far as Paul Walkers "2 Fast and 2 Furious" Camaro.

For Movie Magazine this is Purple.

© 2003 - Purple - Air Date: 6/4/03