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Movie Review .....
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

  • In theaters June 19th, 2006
  • Rated PG-13 for reckless and illegal behavior
    involving teens, violence, language and sexual content.
  • Runtime: 104 min
  • 2.67 out of 5
  • Trailer
COMPLETE REVIEW BELOW

Review by Anne Jackson

I am your typical girl. I watch Sex and the City, crave chocolate and my toenails are painted a summery, watermelon pink. Estrogen proudly courses through my veins and knowing this about myself, a testosterone-laden film wasnt high on my list of things to do. Skeptically, I took my seat among the male-majority.

Main Photo

The Fast & The Furious 3: Tokyo Drift stars Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) who is a high schooler and gets in trouble with the law for wrecking his car in a race. Instead of jail or juvenile hall, his mom sends him to live with his father in Tokyo. Sean befriends Twinkie (Bow Wow), an army brat who shares his need for speed and love for fast cars. He immediately gets connected with the underground Japanese racing culture and realizes his hot stuff status in the states doesnt carry over in Tokyo.


Pic 1 He captures the attention of Neela (Nathalie Kelley) which subsequently ignites the rage of her jealous boyfriend and kingpin of drifting, DK. Sean learns to drift and plays cat and mouse (hes the mouse) with DK and his Japanese mafia family. Along with Twinkie and Seans over-the-top deeply philosophical friend Han (Sung Kang), Sean manages to keep his head above water and his tires on the ground. Most of the time.


I was lead to believe the writers of Tokyo Drift were actually found in a fifth grade English class instead of Hollywood. Its extremely simple and poorly formulated. Corny lines are scattered throughout, and at times the whole audience was laughing at the terrible script. The acting was average at best; Neelas performance being the driest I have seen from any movie in a while. Since she hasnt acted in anything I could find, I actually wonder if shes one of those new robots who just looks human but isnt allowed to express any emotion.

Cusack / Lane Despite poorly executing the basic elements of a good movie, Tokyo Drift got one thing right: The cars. Granted, I am not a racing fan and I know nothing of speed beyond my four- cylinder Pontiac, but several times in the film I found my body tensing during the race scenes. They were extremely well done and I know my blood pressure jumped a few points. Today when drove to my office, I found myself taking the corners just a little faster than normal.

Tokyo Drift is rated PG-13 for reckless and illegal behavior involving teens, violence, language and sexual content. Because of the drastic difference in the elements in Tokyo Drift, I give the writing a 1.5, acting a 2.5 and action a 4, for an average of 2.67 out of 5 nitrous tanksmeaning if you were planning on seeing it, go right ahead. But if you were debating it, save your $9 and wait for the rental.

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Anne is a writer, artist & coffee addict who lives with her husband and two emotionally unstable cats in the Dallas area. She works at Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall and in her free time enjoys badly impersonating foreign accents, photography, and eating anything chocolate. You can reach Anne on her blog at Flowerdust.net.