Fast & Furious 2 (4 Stars)

The title of this film is "2 Fast 2 Furious", as you can see from the movie poster above. I've renamed it "Fast and Furious 2" for the sake of making my blogging easier. If you don't like it, go read someone else's blog.

The first film took place in Los Angeles. The second film takes place in Miami. Brian O'Connor has quit the police force after his problems of conscience at the end of the first film. Friendship is more important to him than doing his job. Now he makes money by participating in street races. They're illegal, but they're made possible by the American style of city construction. Roads are built either north-south or east-west, making cities a grid. This leads to long straight streets, ideal for racing, as long as they're blocked for traffic.

Brian is arrested and offered a pardon for his past crimes in exchange for helping the police with a case. A drug lord called Carter Verone works in Miami. The police know that he's a drug dealer, but they have no proof. They've been told by an undercover customs official that he intends to take his earnings to Argentina. They want to catch him red-handed, with his money, but they need Brian's help. He should be hired as Verone's driver to transport the many bags of money.

The only people who return from the first film are Brian O'Connor and his former boss in the police force, Agent Bilkins. The rest of the characters are new, but they're similar to the characters in the first film. They're a mix of speed freaks and glamorous women. For the first half of the film I thought it wasn't as good as the first film. The plot is infeasible, and there's even less character development. Towards the end I had to change my mind. The car chases won me over. Maybe it's wrong to call them "car chases". They're more of a sequence of high speed car crashes. Action can make up for a weak story.

Success Rate:  + 1.1

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