The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift: Review By jamesdickens

Do we really need another one of these movies? Apparently Universal Studios and Producer Neal H. Moritz felt that the first two were not enough. The filmmakers to their credit have abandoned the whole basic concept of the previous movies, where a cop infiltrates the racing scene to catch the criminal. If that weren’t enough the racing itself has changed as well. The cars no longer merely race in a straight line down the street to the checkered flag. The racing in “Tokyo Drift” is all about the car being sideways with the tires smoking. Drifting is the new type of racing here and if you haven’t heard you better ask somebody.

Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) is an outsider who constantly gets into trouble for racing which happens to be his passion. He gets into a race with a rich kid which lands him in the hands of the police. In order to avoid going to juvenile detention, Sean is on a plane to Tokyo to stay with his father. Sean’s father lays down some simple rules, go to school, come straight home and stay away from racing. Sean wastes no time in breaking all three rules, don’t act surprised you knew he would. Sean runs into Twinkie (Bow Wow) who takes him to the Tokyo racing scene. DK(Zachery Ty Bryan) is the big man on campus and he doesn’t want this outsider on his turf.

Sean throws down a racing challenge even though the fastest thing he owns is a pair of sneakers. Everybody needs a Rabbi so Han (Sung Kang) seeing potential in Sean loans him a car. Now we have a race which takes place not on the street, but in a parking garage of all places. Sean can drive but he can’t drift so he looses the race and smashes the car to make matters worse. The rest of the story is just an excuse for more races. Yes the storyline is very weak, but who cares this is about racing not drama.

This brings me to the reason why I stated that “Tokyo Drift” turned out better than expected. The new style of racing known as drifting gives “Tokyo Drift” a much needed adrenaline shot in the arm. Seeing these cars slide under perfect control is exciting to watch. If you know about this form of racing then I’m telling you nothing new. If you’re used to cars going in a straight line or around an oval track, you may ask yourself “what is going on here?” If you’re not into cars, racing, or especially drifting then move on there’s nothing for you to see here. If you love racing then “Tokyo Drift” will have you gleefully leaning in your seat with every exciting turn.