2 Fast 2 Furious

Skippable, with one caveat worth weighing. Vin Diesel declined to return, so this is a Brian film set in Miami with an entirely different supporting cast, and the plot is the first film's premise run again with the serial numbers filed off: an officer goes undercover with a criminal, this time accompanied by a childhood friend instead of a stranger.

The caveat is that the childhood friend is Roman Pearce and the technician they recruit is Tej Parker, and both become permanent members of the crew for the next seven films. Skipping this means meeting two of the series' regulars already installed, with a shared history nobody will explain. It is not a large cost and it is not nothing.

The film itself is the weakest of the eleven. John Singleton directs it as a bright, loud Miami picture with an orange palette and a great deal of slow-motion hydraulic bouncing, and the stakes are a drug dealer with a boat. The racing is largely incidental to a plot that keeps stopping for exposition about wire transfers.

Tyrese Gibson's Roman is the best thing in it and is already playing the part he plays for two decades, which is a man complaining. There is one genuinely good stunt involving a car and a yacht. Watch it only if you want the crew's full history.