‘2 Fast 2 Furious’ a bit too empty

Derek: “2 Fast 2 Furious” starring Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce and

Paul Walker as Brian O’Conner is a visual spectacle and nothing more.

The movie starts off and ends with cars doing incredible maneuvers at

high speeds. There is even a race going on during the credits. The

premise is simple -- to bust the money laundering Cuban to clear my

rap sheet -- and the plot is minimal -- drive real fast for this,

that and the other thing and then save the girl. If you go into the

movie expecting nothing more than what the previews indicate, chase

scene-heavy eye candy cinema, then it delivers. The cars are cool,

the chicks are hot and the only thing shorter than the time it takes

to “bust a quarter” is the time it takes between car chases.

Sean: “2 Fast 2 Furious” was all that I expected it would be --

cooler cars, faster races, all better than the original! What can I

say about the cars in this one? It had all of my favorite cars. I’m

glad that street racers were so willing to come down and give up

their cars for a while. What else does a movie need besides great

cars? “2 Fast 2 Furious” had a decent plot but it wasn’t played out

that well. In fact, one part of the movie I hated was that it made

you believe that street racers would just wreck their cars. For

instance, at the very end of the movie Paul Walker and Tyrese, who

played their parts well, destroyed two vintage muscle cars. Forget

it! Those are great cars! Another thing, it was very obvious when

stunt doubles were used, but the stunts were great, if you are

willing to suspend your disbelief.

Teri: Let’s cut to the chase, “2 Fast 2 Furious” is muscle bound.

From the adrenaline pumping, heart racing, clutch-popping first scene

all systems are go. John Singleton has enlarged upon the chase scene

obligatory in every detective movie and tossed a whodunit plot into

the middle of the chase. This movie is all about the cars. Although

Eva Mendes is beautiful, there was more flash from chrome than

cheesecake. I did cringe girlishly during one scene. Cole Hauser

playing drug cartel chief, Carter Verone tapped into my fear factor

to torture a cop on the take into compliance. Since I was seeing the

movie with my two teenage sons, one a new driver and one about to

drive, I did have a mom’s moment about glamorizing street races. But

this isn’t reality TV, this is a male fantasy. If you have ever

dragged the man in your life to a chick-flick, (and who among us

hasn’t?) then go see this drag race with him. It’s fun and it’s fast.

* SEAN RUHLAND, 14, is a eighth-grader at Marine View Middle

School, DEREK RUHLAND, 16, is a sophomore at Huntington Beach High

School, and TERI SIMONIS, 43, is an office assistant for the city of

Huntington Beach.