Writer: Elaine Kwong

Writer Ratings:
Overall:
Cast: NA
Plot: NA
Effects: NA
Cinematography: NA

Watch this if you liked: NA

Now, if you were a filmmaker, what would you do if a movie like "The Fast and the Furious" made sinful amounts of money? That's simple. You would immediately plan for a sequel in order to ride on the wave of success of the original to milk it for all the money it's worth. But how would you attempt to top the first movie? Well, that's simple as well. Throw in one of the original cast members to give the audiences a feeling of familiarity, add in new cast members comprising of babelicious supermodels and a rap star, and most important of all, make sure you get the hottest looking cars, modified to perfection. Now if that's not enough to make the average Malaysian cinemagoer drool, I don't know what will. What about the plot, you ask? Does it really matter?

The original cast member in question is Paul Walker whilst the supermodels consist of Calvin Klein underwear model Tyrese, exotic looking Devon Aoki and Revlon spokesperson Eva Mendes.

The sequel finds Brian O'Connor (Walker), now a disgraced cop, paying dearly for letting Vin Diesel's character escape in the first movie. But when the FBI faces problems nabbing crime lord Carter Verone (Cole Hauser), O'Connor is called in to go undercover once more to infiltrate Verone's illegal street racing syndicate, in order to gather enough evidence against Verone to convict him for a bigger crime i.e. international money laundering.

O'Connor agrees to undertake the mission, provided he gets to pick his own partner, in the form of his childhood friend Roman Pearce (Tyrese), an ex-con who can push metal as well as O'Connor. Pearce is at first reluctant to join O'Connor as he is still suspicious over where the latter's loyalties lie. But facing the possibility of wiping his criminal record clean is something even Pearce is unable to resist.

It's the last chance for both ex-cop and ex-con, and their ticket out of disgrace is bringing down Verone. But things get blurred and confusing once again for O'Connor with the appearance of fellow undercover agent Monica Fuentes (Mendes), who may be literally, sleeping with the enemy.

Let's get one thing straight. The storyline is nothing to shout about; the acting, even less earth shattering. Basically, this is a movie designed purely for guys to ogle at the beautiful cars and the beautiful women. Period. The action scenes and the car chases are exciting enough, but you can be sure nobody is going to win an Oscar for this one.

Tyrese does well in his first major film role. The model is a natural in front of the camera, delivering his lines with pretty good comic timing. Paul Walker on the other hand, still doesn't look like he has much going for him besides his good looks. The female stars also don't have much to do except to pout and look drop-dead gorgeous, so the real stars of the film are basically, the cars.

A new line of cars are featured in this movie like the Nissan Skyline GTR, Mitsubishi EVO 7, 1970 Hemi Dodge Challenger, 1969 Yenko Camaro, 1998 BMW M3, 2003 Dodge Viper, Chevy Corvette, 1994 Toyota Supra, 1994 Mazda Rx7, 2001 Honda S2000 and 1993 Acura NSX.

So gentlemen, what can I say but...start your engines.

Cinema Online, 23 September 2008