Metacritic reviews

The result? Well, as expected, director John Singleton ("Boyz N the Hood") did not make a movie as good as "FF1." This is way better.

A lark for anyone who's willing to check their brains at the concession stand for 100 minutes.

This shaggy-dog sequel is ultimately satisfying for the most low-tech of reasons: The competitive bond between the two central characters.

2F2F, under the cut-to-the-chase direction of John Singleton, strips the package known as the Mindless Summer Movie down to its barest components of wheels, skin, and a pulsing soundtrack.

A movie with a confident sense of its own worthlessness, it speeds by in a flurry of candy-coloured cars, bare midriffs, screaming engines and a pulsing rap soundtrack.

Singleton abandons the underground racing subculture that gave the first film its allure, relying instead on lazy thriller plotting that's only a bag of donuts and a freeze-frame away from the average TV cop show.

The best thing about 2 Fast 2 Furious is Tyrese (terrific in Singleton's "Baby Boy"), whose charisma, looks and charm supply the picture with much-needed spark. It's too bad he's stuck in this spotty video game.

So what do we have here? Lots of cars going very fast.

My hand trembles slightly as I type these words, but the truth is that while watching 2 Fast 2 Furious, the follow-up to the pleasurably cheap-thrills sleeper "The Fast and the Furious," I realized just how much I miss Vin Diesel.

This movie only takes a few minutes to crash and burn, but more than an hour and a half to realize it.