Review - '2 Fast 2 Furious' is a needless sequel

The Associated Press

For all of you who thought a sequel to "The Fast and the Furious" couldn't possibly exist without Vin Diesel - wrong!

The original wasn't about Diesel. It was about the cars.

Even when the dialogue was mind-bogglingly cheesy and the acting popped off the screen like so much over-buttered corn, the street racing sequences were shot and editing thrillingly - and that made the movie a surprise hit of summer 2001.

Two years later, we have "2 Fast 2 Furious" - a needless sequel, and a shameless opportunity to cash in yet again.

Though the action has moved from the street racers and smugglers of Los Angeles to the street racers and smugglers of Miami, you're essentially watching the same movie.

But it proves that Diesel isn't the indispensable engine; in his place as Paul Walker's sidekick is singer-actor-model Tyrese Gibson, who's just as physically striking, but utterly lacking the sense of self-importance with which Diesel strutted across the scenery.

Gibson has charisma oozing from every pore of his flawlessly sculpted physique, but he doesn't take himself so seriously. He's funny. He's having a good time. And he and Walker, who's turning into a surfer-dude version of Steve McQueen, share a comfortable camaraderie.

More importantly, though, "2 Fast 2 Furious" is also about the cars, and John Singleton knows that. The director of "Boyz N the Hood" and "Baby Boy" - the latter of which was Gibson's film debut in 2001 - takes unabashed glee in polishing every guilty-pleasure nugget to a blindingly high sheen.

The blindingly beautiful Walker is back as Brian O'Connor, an undercover LAPD detective in the first film who's been stripped of his badge and is racing souped-up street rockets for kicks in Miami.

When he gets pulled over during the film's exhilarating opening race - which features a leap across an open drawbridge - he's offered a way out. Brian can help U.S. Customs agents nail the wealthy Carter Verone (Cole Hauser), who's using his import-export business as a cover for an international money laundering operation. If he says yes, he gets his badge back.

But Brian only agrees to the deal with the help of his childhood best friend, Roman Pearce (Gibson), an accomplished driver with his own criminal record.

Infiltrating Verone's world gives Brian and Roman a chance to zoom around in flashy cars and ogle hot women in bikinis. This, of course, is what you paid to see.

Meanwhile, they must figure out whether Monica (the gorgeous Eva Mendes), an undercover agent already assigned to the case, has crossed the line and truly become Verone's lover and partner in crime. And they have to avoid getting beaten up by Verone's silk-shirt, gold-chain wearing thugs.

They get help from rapper Ludacris as the racing scene's ringleader and model Devon Aoki as the lone female racer who functions as their Annika Sorenstam. (She totally holds her own in a pink, Asian-inspired convertible, but her voice is so tinny, she shouldn't have been allowed to speak.)

Come to think of it, "2 Fast 2 Furious" would have been even better if none of the actors spoke - then we'd only have to focus on the roar of the engines, which is all this movie is really about.

"2 Fast 2 Furious," a Universal Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for street racing, violence, language and some sensuality.

Running time: 100 minutes.

Two and a half stars out of four.