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After winning an illegal street car racing event, among other participants, ex-cop Brian O'Connor
(Paul Walker) is taken in by the cops. Instead of being charged, he is offered a deal: help customs agents get the elusive drug lord Carter Verone (Cole Hauser).
O'Connor agrees on the condition that he has as partner his boyhood friend Roman Pearce (Tyrese) who's on parole. They infiltrate Verone's ring as undercover and get hired
to pick up bags of money from North Beach to be delivered to the Keys, for which they are to earn $100 grand. However, if they work with the law as agreed and get Verone,
their police records would be wiped clean.
Visually and aurally, the movie offers color, sound and fast action which easily get viewers glued
to the screen. The racing cars, inter-weaving with flowing and oncoming vehicles, the directed accidental and intended crashes, and pileups are things to see. The
story however is very unbelievable. That someone would hire car racers to get his contraband through for such a large sum of money is beyond imagination. An armored
van for the purpose would have been safer and less conspicuous, and would even cost less. Racing cars, illegally rushing at top speed, disrupting traffic, causing expected
trouble, inviting police attention—actually O'Connor and Pearce are being monitored and followed—are impossible to enact except in the movies. Among the actors who
appear adequate for their roles, Walker, Tyrese, and Eva Mendes who plays Monica Fuentes, girlfriend of Verone but is actually undercover, are more credible in their roles.
2 Fast and 2 Furious is a car racing spectacle. There are three sequences of this shown, the longest of which is the race from NorthBeach to
the Keys. The first is the illegal street run and the second is when O'Connor and Pearce have to prove that they are the most capable to do the job for Verone. It
appears inconceivable that with all the damage caused—including death and physical injury—there is no hint, visual or aural, that something is being done about the
situation. There is no sound nor sign of help coming to check on or take charge of the hurt and the dead. Another point to note is that not all the confiscated cash is
surrendered to police custody. Some individuals decide to keep some for themselves and they are able to do so without the law or anyone knowing about it. Friendship is
a strong point of the film. There appears to have been a falling out between Brian and Rome caused by the latter blaming the former for his being in prison. Eventually
Rome admits it was his own fault that got him the jail term. They make up and move on as if they never had a rift at all.
(Date Reviewed: September 12, 2003)
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