2 Fast 2 Furious

THE GIST: Now a wanted fugitive, Brian O'Conner's skills prove too valuable to waste, so he is offered a deal to have his criminal record expunged in exchange for his help in bringing down a drug cartel. O'Conner agrees and reaches out to an old friend with a similar skill set to help him set up the operation.

After the rather unexpected success of The Fast and the Furious, understandably, the studio set out to make a follow up with the same cast. Vin Diesel, however, wasn't happy with the paycheck and demanded more money. Feeling strong-armed, the studio refused and Diesel walked.

The studio still wanted to make the sequel though, so they proceeded to replace Diesel with Tyrese Gibson and added Eva Mendes and Ludacris.

I personally don't consider Vin Diesel a good actor; I believe his strengths are his muscular body, his macho posturing, and his deep, smoky voice. Aside from that, he manages to act, but the roles need to be tightly tailor made to fit his other skills rather than expect his acting abilities to allow him to overcome a weak script.

Eve so, he's a few notches above Tyrese Gibson, a strikingly good looking model who made the jump to movies with even less capacity to emote past a few posed facial expressions. Fortunately for him, audiences seemed to like him enough to keep him in the franchise.

Ludacris is a musician-cum-(hardly)-actor I also failed to appreciate here or in future installments. Mendes seems to have been cast simply to check the gorgeous-female-with-a-brain box. I'm not saying Paul Walker is a greatly talented actor, but he pretty much towers over every other major player.

The car chases are about the only thing of passing interest here, because the script is thoroughly weak and predictable. Probably Diesel lucked out in not being associated with this turd.

THE BOTTOM LINE: If you are here because you enjoyed the first movie, tame your expectations. 2 Fast 2 Furious will get your adrenaline pumping but the joyride will likely be short lived.

Grade: 3.5