Eye For Film >> Movies >> The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) Film Review
The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift
Reviewed by: John Gallagher
When you read the words, The Fast And The Furious, you know what to expect - fast cars, hot women and intense camerawork. You don't rely too much on the storyline, but sit back and watch all the pretty cars zip about on well-populated streets.
In this instalment, things haven't changed much. Shawn Boswell (Lucas Black) has moved from town to town with his mother. Not because they can't seem to find the right place to focus on little Shawn's education, but because he keeps getting into trouble with cars.
After a kick-ass race through a construction site with Clay (Zachary Ty Bryan - the kid from Home Improvement), he is forced to leave, this time for Tokyo to stay with his father. Once there, he falls for the wrong girl, gets mixed up with the wrong crowd and finds a mentor in the form of Han (Sung Kang), who will teach him how to drift. Add to this the connections to the Yakuza and you pretty much have the plot for the third instalment of this massively popular franchise.
Shawn doesn't try to become one with the Japanese (Paul Walker take notice) and you forget about the shocking waste of an hour-and-a-half that was 2 Fast 2 Furious, because Tokyo Drift takes us back to the racing roots of the original. There's even a nice little cameo at the end.
This is not as good as the Walker/Diesel/Rodriguez prototype, but way better than the sequel. The cars and races are awesome and the cast is likeable. Even the bad guy (Brian Tee) is BADD!
And that's the way it should be.
Reviewed on: 18 Jun 2006