Staff Review - 2 Fast 2 Furious

[linton]

Universal

2 FAST 2 FURIOUS

Released: Out now
Rating: M15+
RRP: $39.95

DISC FEATURES AND SPECS:

Inside 2 Fast 2 Furious

Audio Commentary with director John Singleton

Supercharged Stunts

Outtakes

Making Music with Ludacris

Deleted Scenes

Tricking Out a Hot Import Car

Actor's Spotlights

Actors' Driving School

Ride Spotlights

Prelude to 2 Fast 2 Furious

Animated Anecdotes

DVD Rom Features

English Dolby Digital 5.1, Hugarian Dolby Digital 5.1

Running time: 103 mins

CAST:
Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson, Eva Mendes, Devon Aoki
Directed By: John Singleton


Synopsis:
2 Fast 2 Furious is the sequel to 2001's smash-hit The Fast and The Furious and follows the super-charged world of street racing. Paul Walker returns as former cop Brian O'Conner, who must reunite with ex-con friend Roman Pearce (Tyrese) to work undercover an attempt to bring down Miami-based import-export dealer Carter Verone (Cole Hauser). Teaming up with undercover customs agent Monica Clemente (Eva Mendes), they find out how quickly things can go wrong, and must fall back to their street racing roots to get the job done, and clear their records.



AUDIO/VISUAL:
Audio:
As soon as I started the movie up and heard the rattle of the air gun, I knew I was going to be impressed with this DVD.
I was right, the audio can't be faulted, all speakers are clear, surrounds are rarely quiet, the sub is always there when you think it should be, and they all work a treat together. Directional effects are present through-out, and even the short film that leads up to the main feature gets the 6 channel treatment. Although it hasn't got a DTS track like the first movie the fast and the furious, I really couldn't imagine it doing any better than the Dolby Digital 5.1 track given to us here.
When played loud, this movie really shines, the rumble of the car idling vibrating throughout the chairs, the turbo's cutting right in with the high pitched chirping, and the room just filling right up with a mixture of quality sounds. I actually invited my neighbour over to watch it so that I could play it loud without upsetting him.

Video:
The video on this DVD is reference all the way, just as the audio is.
Only one fault in the whole film was an artifact that I didn't even pick up on the first time I watched it. The fault is question occurs right before a quick movement by the customs officer in the briefing room for the first time. Apart from that, which, like I said, even I missed the first time it was so small, the transfer is flawless. Not even any real instances of grain.
The neon’s of the cars are bright and cut right into the perfect blackness of the night, skin tones are spot on, and colours are crisp and clean with no bleeding anywhere to be seen.
The movie is presented in 2.35:1 widescreen enhanced, and runs for 103min


EXTRA FEATURES:

As soon as you put the DVD in, you’re greeted with the language select, then a WARNING screen, telling us that all stunts where performed under strict safety conditions in a controlled environment, but after that it’s the select a ride screen.
Each menu has its own set of features exclusive to the actor driving it, sort of like the Cats and Dogs DVD, where there was a set of cat special features, and a dog set.

Roman's Car Exclusives
Collection of documentaries containing Tyrese Gibson (Roman Pearce) and his car, the Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder.

Spotlight on Tyrese 2min17sec
Looks at how the other actors in the film see Gibson and what he brings to the film with just being who he is.

The Ride 2min38sec
Introduces the Spyder to the audience, and then Tyrese tells us how much he hated the original paint job, the rims, and the interior and the changes he made to it.

Driving School 2min07 sec
Tyrese hits the driving school in preparation for filming, where he drives around in Mustang Saleen's, skyline GTR's, and Honda S2000's and NSX's (to name a few), blowing up engines, ripping up tyres, and pretty much collecting every cone on the circuit.


Brian's Car Exclusives
Just like the other two menu systems, this one is customised with the colours of Brian's car, the Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VII and contains features exclusive to this menu.

Spotlight on Paul Walker 2min18sec
Paul Talks about his return to the fast and the furious movie scene, the chemistry between him and the other actors, as well as interviews with the other main players in the film. Contains a lot of joking around from Paul and Tyrese, as well as a few outtakes from the film.

The Ride 4min13sec
Growing up in and around rallying, I loved the appearance of the Evo in the film. In this section they just outline some of the features of the Mitsubishi Evolution VII , The modifications they made to the car, and how they used a total of four EVO's through-out the film for stunt sequences etc.

Driving School 2min46sec
This is Paul Walker's driving school footage, he explains the reason why they are there and his love of driving, and it contains interviews with the producers, a few more shots of the EVO and practicing the slide in the skyline in the film's first race sequence.

Suki's Car Exclusives
Contains features exclusive to suki's menu, the design of the menu is influenced by her car and its paintjob.

Spotlight on Devon Aoki 2min25sec
Devon explains how she got the part, the enjoyment she got from making the movie, her characters background in the film and her love of working under John Singleton and with the other members of the cast.

The Ride 2min26sec
Suki's car in the film is the pink supercharged Honda S2000, and in this doco it covers all the work that was put into getting it ready. From the sound system, seats, and gauges, to the Veilside body kit and anime paint job, right down to the rims and exhaust system. The pink colour selection aside, its a really sweet ride.

Driving School
This is where we find out the most driving experience Devon had before being signed on to the film was driving a golf cart!
So this doco has some great facial expressions from Devon as she not only has a lot of fun, but learns to drive and drive well at the same time.

Audio Commentary
The audio commentary from the Director John Singleton and is good overall. Gives the usual info on the locations, casting, actor chemistry, stunts, as well as some info on the cars. Pauses are very few, and only are to give you time to watch or listen a bit of the scene in which he's describing or referring to.

Prelude to 2 Fast 2 Furious
This is a short film running for just over 6minutes, which fills us in on Brian (Paul Walker) made his way from Los Angeles to Miami after the the events of the first movie. If you havn't already seen it on the tricked out edition of the fast and the furious, I strongly recommend you watch it before 2 fast 2 furious. It's done so though the play menu, and selecting the option to play it before the main film.

Inside 2 Fast 2 Furious 10min03sec
Contains Shifting Gears: The making of 2 Fast 2 Furious. It's made up of interviews, behind the scenes shots and movie clips. Covers making the second film with a different director, casting, sending the actors to driving school, Research for the film, and last but definitely not least, the cars.

Deleted Scenes
Introduced by Bruce Cannon (film editor) and John singleton, there are 6 deleted scenes, all presented in 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 The deleted scenes are separated using chapters, so you can easily skip through to the one you want to watch.

Outtakes 2min44sec
Contains some hilarious outtakes that really show the chemistry the actors had with each other in this film.

Tricking Out a Hot Import Car 3min22sec
Comes with a 30 second warning attached to the start telling us this doco is not a how-to guide, or a substitute for professional automotive advice. There really must be some slow thinking people out there if they think that they could do anything mechanical to their cars without previous experience in doing so after watching this.

That said, it's pretty entertaining doco presented by Dalene Kurtis (2002 playmate of the year), and Craig Lieberman (fast and the furious tech. advisor).They take an EVO, $50,000 and 6 weeks of time, and add a custom paint job, changed the turbo, change the suspension, the exhaust system, the rims and tyres, the audio/video system, and to finish it off some decals and a dyno test.

Supercharged Stunts 5min29sec
This is the designing, testing and shooting of the final stunt sequence of the film. Covers the green screen, CGI, rigging explosions, safety measures, setting up the crane and the camera mounting of the stunt.

Making Music with Ludacris 5min
Behind the scenes feature for making the act the fool song for the soundtrack. Filmed after the film wrapped, contains cameos from all the main cast, and Devon tells us she's only just got her learners permit. It doesn’t contain the finished clip.

Animated Anecdotes
When entering this menu, your greeted with the following info that say's it all:

Welcome to Universal's Animated Anecdotes for 2 Fast 2 Furious. While you watch the film, you will be enlightened, informed, and entertained with interesting and sometimes unbelievable facts about the production, cast and more.
Also notes that it could affect playback on some DVD models, but I've played it on a Wintel, Pioneer, Teac, Akai, and Panasonic and haven’t ran into a problem. Seems its only there for a minority of cases.

Contains some good info, such as The Nissan Skyline is one of the most historic of Japanese cars and been around for over 40 years, Paul walker's a proud owner of a tricked out skyline valued at approx $110,000 , and weird but useless info such as James Remar is the only cast member who is left handed.


A MEMORABLE MOMENT FROM THIS DVD:
This was the same for me in the first film too, definitely the cars. The mix of muscle and imported modified cars in this film is spectacular.

OVERALL:
This was probably the one DVD I was hanging out for this year, and now that it's here, I wasn't disappointed. In every way it's a reference quality DVD and outshines the original, be it in special features, audio or sound. Lets face it, while the story wasn't Oscar winning stuff, it's not just there to piece together some action sequences with fast cars either. It's entertaining, there are some great one-liners, great music and it will definitely be a worthy addition to any collection.
2 Fast 2 Furious is available to purchase now with a RRP of $39.95

Rating out of 5
VIDEO QUALITY	5
AUDIO QUALITY	5
EXTRAS	5
THE MOVIE	4
OVERALL	4.75