Peddling more fuel-hardy fun

The faster you drive, the less intelligent you become, an axiom proved by 2 Fast 2 Furious. Is the nitrous oxide packed by drivers of muscle cars to boost their speed leaking into the front seat?

2 Flash 2 Flameout is a better description. The pic is closer to the PlayStation experience of Gran Turismo than to a movie. This is not to say that it isn't fun, only to say that it is more about sensation than sense.

In this sequel to the 2001 breakaway hit The Fast and the Furious, Paul Walker, the screen's definitive dumb blonde, returns as Brian O'Conner, an undercover cop who has fallen from grace. Partnering with Walker, in place of Vin Diesel, he of the sandpaper voice and bull neck, is hip-hop star Tyrese, he of the wisecrack and bullethead, who likewise serves as spark plug.

The real star of John Singleton's film is the bootycam used to caress the posterior assets of Eva Mendes, a pouter in the Cindy Crawford mode, and Devon Aoki, who looks like a jailbait Ring-Pop. Outside of music videos, is it customary for actresses to make their entrances with derriere-jiggling exits?

It's more about the bumpers than the headlights in this movie where the babes are fast and the cars are faster. Adherents of "Buy American" should be warned that the starring vehicles here are a metalflake Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder and a Nissan Skyline, neither of which is quite as beautiful, or as formidable, as the 1973 Dodge Charger that Diesel's character refuses to drive in the first film.

Now that we've inventoried the film's two-heeled and four-wheeled stars, it's a good time to tinker with the engine to find a plot.

The script by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas is a passionate argument for breaking the speed limit (and, it would seem, the sound barrier). How else is a disgraced cop likely to catch the baddest drug lord in Miami? (Call it Miami Trice.)

The film is also a paean to I-95 in South Florida, eight lanes that, as everybody knows, are wide open as an airstrip and therefore the ideal place to have an impromptu demolition derby.

The best that one can say about Singleton, Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director, is that he's not afraid to make a mindless, commercial movie. He's gone from Boyz N the Hood to this one about the Boyz Under the Hood.

Contact movie critic Carrie Rickey at 215-854-5402 or crickey@phillynews.com.

2 Fast 2 Furious ** (out of four stars)

Produced by Neal H. Moritz, directed by John Singleton, written by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, photography by Matthew F. Leonetti, music by David Arnold, distributed by Universal Pictures.

Running time: 1 hour, 50 mins.

Brian O'Conner. . . Paul Walker

Roman Pearce. . . Tyrese

Monica Fuentes. . . Eva Mendes

Carter Verone. . . Cole Hauser

Tej. . . Chris "Ludacris" Bridges

Parent's guide: PG-13 (violence, sadism, profanity, sexuality)

Showing at: area theaters