Fast & Furious

First, a little background.  With the notable exception of Tokyo Drift, I’d never seen any of the previous movie in whole.  I caught bits and pieces of them on TV or on flights, but I never got pulled in.  This past weekend, in anticipation of catching director Justin Lin’s second go at the franchise and the original’s direct sequel, I watched my DVD of the first movie.  I bought the DVD long ago as part of a promotional two-pack of the first two movies that also included a preview DVD and ticket for Tokyo Drift.  The “acting” of the first movie was painful, the production value and lighting awful, and plot plodding.

The article-free sequel is a noticable improvement on all fronts.  Everything and everyone is much prettier, the line delivery adequate, and pacing brisk.  Tons of exciting car (and foot) chases, fights, and explosions.  It does, however, assume previous knowledge of the procedings of the first movie (and does have a tie to Tokyo Drift) and squandered some perfect opportunities to slip in a non-hokey introduction dialogue to explain certain initially vague and confusing pre-existing character relationships (that does get cleared up for any confused viewers in the second act).

There isn’t really more to say other than it delivers the fun.  Hey, it even has the “rambo lambo,” the Lamborghini LM002.  Also, if you actually watch the end titles, you’ll see it’s actually a continuation of the final scene and not just random computer effects.