paulsrobinson

Justin Lin's first foray into the fast and furious franchise is rather the odd one out in the series, as it contains none of the original cast and is out of sequence from the rest of the films. But it is an interesting and refreshing film for the franchise.

New lead character Sean Boswell (Lucas Black). After getting in trouble in America is forced to move to Tokyo to live with his father. Here he gets involved with Drift racing, Yakuza and future series regular Han Seoul-Oh (Sug Kang). I know fast and furious films are things that don't get dragged down exposition and plot. But even so this film does seriously lack any sort of plot. The acting at times is atrocious, and with Lucas Black you are wishing for a quick return of Vin Diesel and Paul walker.

What is unusual, but very good especially for an action film. Is the actual use of Tokyo instead of just a weird, exotic location for are fish out of water scenario. We get to see bits of Japanese culture for example in locations used such as the Pachinko parlour,or a rather humorous scene involving a sumo wrestler,and many others. Justin Lin is a decent director and his decision to use drifting as the type of racing in the film does open it up for some beautiful shots that car fanatics will love.

Overall the film is dramatically awful. But the actions beats and the use of Tokyo. Make this an interesting addition to the franchise.

Did the First Hangover need a sequel, the answer is no. But we have two and i have thoroughly enjoyed both sequels. The second i found very funny but did not love as it was a repeat of the original. But Part 3 definitely goes in it's own direction. It may not have given me the belly laughs of the others. But i was giggling for most of the film.

The story contains, this time NO hangover, NO piecing together of the night before. what happens is the Wolfpack are taking Alan (Zach Galifianakis) who is off his med's to a treatment facility. When they are accosted by crime boss Marshall (John Goodman) and the returning black Doug (Mike Epps) , and they force the Wolfpack to find Mr Chow (Ken Jeong) who has escaped prison in Thailand. And kidnap Doug (Justin Bartha) for insurance.

It is refreshing that the story is different on this occasion. Going in much darker and much more dangerous places. Zach Galifianakis is excellent as the overgrown spoilt man-child Alan. With Galifianakis and Director Todd Phillips taking the character in even stranger and more awkward directions. Alan is now effectively the lead in the movie with Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms having surprisingly little to do. But react to Mr Chow and Alan's antics, and give typical eye rolls at the situation. Also this time the film adds a little more heart to the proceedings with a minor characters death, and a intimate moment involving. In usual scene stealing form Melissa McCarthy.

The Character Mr Chow in this does become almost the second lead in the film, and I personally was never that bothered about the character and found him a funny nuisance for the gang. I know some really really hated him and his increased prominence in this may alienate some people from liking the movie. Also I was disappointed in the lack of use of Helms and Cooper. Who are both talented comic actors and also grounded the films comedy in response to the craziness of the other characters. Credit has to be given to Justin Bartha in possibly the most thankless role in any franchise in movie history.

In the end this is a decent way to end the series and gives the characters a decent send off. Supplying enough silly laughs to make this worth a viewing. Stick around for a funny bonus scene, which hopefully is just the last hurrah and not the indication of a fourth.

2 Fast 2 Furious is in many, many ways a far inferior film to it's predecessor The Fast and the Furious. But what it does have, is a certain likability to it, which i don't fully understand.

Returning star Paul Walker, playing ex-under cop turned fugitive Brian O'Conner has a chance to redeem himself and with the help of child hood friend Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) bring down drug lord Carter Verone (Cole Hauser). It brings what is expected for the film, Sexy ladies wearing skimpy outfits, men who look good with their tops off, and extremely fast cars. As already stated the film is worse than the first in a lot ways, the acting is pretty poor throughout the cast, particularly Cole Hauser who was a bad choice for the antagonist. As for me he failed to express a methodical calculating bag guy which i think he was going for. The film also move towards CGI green screen with it's effects which take away from some of the original's appeal, and making it look worse that the first also.

Good things about the film are the two leads do share a pretty easy going chemistry with each other, which made some their bickering scenes fun to watch. It also brings in the appealing Eva Mendes after her kind of breakthrough role in the film Training Day. Some of the action scenes and car chases were very good though. They did feel a bit Michael Bay like. Making me think John Singleton may have gone to him for advice before making this, and what ever you think about Bay, his actions scenes are usually well choreographed.

A Film i can understand why some people will hate, but i have to say i had to much fun watching to dislike it.