Welcome back 2 the party! It’s round 2 of Riley watching the Fast and Furious movies, and this time we’re tackling the 2003 Vin Diesel-less sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious on the journey to seeing the 2023 movie schedule’s milestone movie Fast X. As many of you likely know, this movie does not have a good place on the Fast and Furious ranking, and it’s not at the top of my list either, but I had a blast watching it for the first time, and have a lot of thoughts.
Where On Earth Was Vin Diesel?
I was aghast when I found out Vin Diesel wasn’t in 2 Fast 2 Furious. This is because he’s the first person I associate with the franchise, so him not being in the sequel as Dominic Toretto was jarring.
Turns out Diesel was opposed to The Fast and the Furious should being a franchise. He explained his choice to turn down the sequel, telling #Legend in 2017:
After I made the first one, I remember being in a room full of big CEOs and the people who owned the franchise. We were at a dinner in London celebrating the success of the film. One of the guys said to me, “We have to do this again”. I remember telling everyone at the table, ‘You can’t do this again. You can’t touch it. You have to leave it alone.’
The actor ended up turning down $25 million according to the article. However, when he returned to the Fast franchise he was also a producer, giving him more say in the film as a whole.
So, with that mystery solved, we can move on to the actual movie.
Hang On, Cole Hauser -- As In Rip From Yellowstone -- Was In This?
This point involves a small glimpse into my personal life. My mom has been trying to get me to watch Yellowstone for years now, and I finally gave in approximately 24 hours after watching 2 Fast 2 Furious. To put it lightly, I was shook when I found out that 2 Fast 2 Furious is on Cole Hauser’s resume of movies. He plays the big bag (low-key mustache twirly) Carter Verone in the 2003 Fast film, as well as Rip on Yellowstone, and saying that in a sentence feels silly.
While I still don’t fully believe Hauser played both these characters, according to the internet and my co-workers he did… which is wild.
There Are Some Sexism Issues Here
The biggest issue I had with this movie was the way it portrayed women. At the time, I’m sure this film wasn’t considered sexist, however, here, now, in 2023 there were many aspects of this film that had sexist undertones, and that was not OK.
I’m specifically talking about Eva Mendes' Monica Fuentes and Devon Aoki’s Suki. While I’m assuming this movie was made with good intentions by giving these two women big supporting roles, they were constantly being checked out by the guys and hyper-sexualized. I did appreciate that they were both powerful, independent women. However, overall, this film had some serious issues with how the women were represented. I really hope it gets better as the films go on.
Somehow, There Were Even More Cars Than The First One!
If you read my thoughts about The Fast and the Furious, you’ll know that one of them was how shocked I was by the number of cars in the movie. Well, folks, there were even more in this one! Talk about upping the ante.
The scene I’m talking about in particular is when all the cars zoomed out of a garage in an effort to confuse the cops so Brian and Roman could get away. I would describe the scene as if you dumped a tub of Hot Wheels on a toy garage, and my friend who was watching the movie with me explained that the sequence felt like a “reverse clown car.” In short, there were a shocking number of vehicles scrambling across the screen, and it was a blast to watch.
Is It Just Me, Or Was There Romantic Tension Between Roman And Brian?
So, hear me out. There was that one moment in 2 Fast 2 Furious where Brian and Roman got into quite the tiff (who am I kidding there were multiple of those) and then intensely stared at each other. In that sequence, they were so close to one another's faces, and the romantic chemistry was red hot.
Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibsons’ characters have a history, they’re clearly passionate about each other, they fight like an old married couple, and look at each other with love and passion in the same way a young and newly in love couple would. With all that said, I would not be opposed to the two getting together. However, I know the Fast franchise audience, I know the time these movies were made, and I’m 100% certain that will never happen. But, a girl can dream.
That Boat Stunt Was Very, Very Cool
This stunt is proof that movie magic is sick, and makes it so the impossible can look possible. Watching that car jump off the land and on a yacht was epic, and I loved it. Somehow they managed to one-up themselves, while still honoring the dope stunt from the first movie, and it made me really excited to see what happens in the upcoming Fast and Furious movies.
I learned from Road and Track that the sequence was created by using a stunt car and a pulley system to catapult the vehicle into the air. Then rather than actually damaging a $5 million yacht they built a replica on land, and used it and some explosives to film the collision. Overall, especially considering this was made in 2003, this stunt was epic, and I’m stoked to see how things get even more intense as I make my way through the Fast and Furious timeline.
Let’s Take A Minute To Appreciate The Terribly Hilarious Dialogue
To capture my thoughts on this point in one idea: If I were to take a guess, I’d say the word “bro” or “bruh” was used at least 200 times in 2 Fast 2 Furious. The best way I can describe this dialogue is that if you let a teen bro from the early 2000s write a big-budget movie, this is what you’d get.
The bad dialogue became abundantly clear anytime one of the cars drove fast, the lines the drivers exclaimed were so hilariously cheesy that I wrote them down. For example, Brian says at one point:
That’s the Brian O’Connor school of driving baby!
Also, Roman exclaims:
Romey Rome. You ain’t heard of me?!?
This alone proves my point. The dialogue ain’t it in this movie, but boy was it fun to laugh about.
Other Thoughts
- Opening credits…iconic
- I legitimately said during the movie: “This is some Mario Kart shit.”
- Not a thought, more of a question: Why was Paul in Miami?
- Ludacris was the most logical character.
- The song “Act a Fool” (which should just be called “2 Fast 2 Furious”) is a banger.
- The title really started the trend of committing to number pun titles, and I deeply appreciate that.
Conclusion: 2 Fast 2 Furious is not the fast and the furious, it’s more like just dudes being bros who happen to be fast and angry.
As you can tell, I don’t have the most positive opinion around 2 Fast 2 Furious. However, it was a good time, and I had a lot of fun watching it. Although, I’m not going to lie I’m not sure I’d watch it again.
If you are interested in watching the second installment in the Fast saga, you can do so with a Peacock Subscription.
