2006 sequel
Rating: 10/20
Plot: A troubled teen moves in with his father in Japan and gets involved with the racing scene. Drifting.
I'd probably have to watch the second installment in this franchise again, but I think I like this one more than 2 Fast 2 Furious. Not that I liked it though. This suffers from the lack of Vin Diesel, something that still feels like a weird thing to type. New protagonist Lucas Black has almost no charisma. He's just a punk kid, and it's not surprising that they decided to leave him out of these other Fast and Furious movies although I think I heard he's in the new one. Shad Moss, better known as Bow Wow, does bring a little more character as Twinkie and has most of the best one-liners. Loved the bit where he hands Black a box of Kleenex before a ride in his ridiculous car--"for when you blow your wad, man." And really, how could you not blow your wad when you're riding in a car that looks like this:
Hell, the thing's got hair!
Sung Kang's Han character isn't a terribly interesting character in the Fast and Furious movies that follow this one--you know, the Tokyo Drift prequels. I'm still not entirely sure how that works exactly and how the post-credits scene in the sixth one even makes sense, but if you're looking for movies that make sense, perhaps this isn't the franchise for you. Kang spends much of this movie snacking in a cool way. I was most excited to see Sonny Chiba's name attached to this. For whatever reason, he's JJ Sonny Chiba, and he unfortunately doesn't have a whole lot to do. He doesn't even drift! Not even once!
Here's a confession: I only watched this movie because I thought it would help me with my Mario Kart skills. I've been driving a Mario Kart vehicle that is shaped like a bear which, if you think about it, isn't that much sillier than some of the cars you see in this movie. You know, like the one with hair and fists popping out the side. There's also a scene where a character throws a blue shell at another character. After watching this drift-heavy movie--seriously, if you play a drinking game where you drink every time a character talks about drifting, you'll die while watching this--I started drifting for every single turn in the game, but it didn't help. In fact, I went from my usual 9th place finishes to 10th or 11th place.
Without charismatic characters--Vin Diesel does, by the way, have a brief cameo at the end, but it's too little and too late--you have to depend on the cars to bring the personality. Things start fine. This movie doesn't waste any time at all and throws the stupid at you right at the beginning with a race that would never have happened and doesn't make any sense while it's happening. Once we get to Tokyo, the cars all look pretty much the same to me, and there really isn't a single race or chase that grabs me like the action sequences in movies 4-6. Maybe those spoiled me since I watched them first.
Thematically, this feels a little dangerous to me. One character tells another to "make choices and don't look back," and it just seems like that "No fear!" philosophy could get people in trouble, especially since most people are incapable of making good choices. If you're going to live your life following that advice, I guess you'd better make sure you have a good supply of Kleenex.
Favorite moment: A Snickers commercial in the middle of the movie. It's embarrassing.
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