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Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, The
Universal Pictures

Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, The reviews


7.0

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 56 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for reckless and illegal behavior involving teens, violence, language and sexual content

Starring Lucas Black, Bow Wow, Nathalie Kelley, Brian Tee, Sung Kang, Leonardo Nam, Brian Goodman, and Sonny Chiba

Set in the sexy and colorful underground world of Japanese drift racing, the newest and fastest customized rides go head-to head on some of the most perilous courses in the world. (Universal)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Crime \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Alfredo Botello Chris Morgan Kario Salem
DIRECTED BY:	Justin Lin
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: September 26, 2006 Theatrical: June 16, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	104 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Also known as "The Fast and the Furious 3"

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The opening half-hour may prove to be a disreputable classic of pedal-to-the-metal filmmaking.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Lin takes an established franchise and makes it surprisingly fresh and intriguing. The movie is not exactly "Shogun" when it comes to the subject of an American in Japan (nor, on the other hand, is it "Lost in Translation"). But it's more observant than we expect, and uses its Japanese locations to make the story about something more than fast cars.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

It's not much of a movie, but a hell of a ride. So what if the movie dumbs down Japanese culture to a bad yakuza movie and features Japanese characters who can barely speak Japanese? The cars are the stars here. Everything else is lost in translation.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Pumping high-performance gas back into the series after a second lap sputter, third entry stays in high gear most of the way with several exhilarating racing sequences, and benefits greatly from the evocative Japanese setting.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Manna from gearhead heaven, the third and most guiltily pleasurable Furious emits the crude thrills of a 1950s drag-racing cheapie, only with souped-up Toyotas and Nissans in place of gas-guzzling hot rods, and slinky Asian temptresses substituted for poodle-skirted teenyboppers.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Despite all the silliness the drift races are gripping, and director Justin Lin captures Tokyo's energy and glitter far better than Sofia Coppola.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

As idiot car-crash movies go, "Tokyo Drift" is pretty fun, and certainly a more-than-decent entry in this franchise.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

By all that's unholy, this third edition of the high-emission franchise should have been at least as awful as the second one was. (The first one was good fun.) Yet it's surprisingly entertaining in its deafening fashion, despite the absence of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, the co-stars of parts one and two.

New York Post Kyle Smith

The movie teaches us that you can flip your car down a mountain 15 times and walk away from it with two Tylenol.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The F&F series is the 21st century's beach movie, one for some beachless future world where the kids are crowning 25 and seem capable of living off of hair gel and exhaust fumes.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

This third installment of the popular series about fast cars and the posturing boys who love them is best viewed as an energetic cartoon, an unintentionally amusing, head-shaking guilty pleasure that will divert those not in the mood for anything more profound than gleaming metal and preening women.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

The kind of movie in which plot and performances (and members of the fairer sex) are treated as accessories, "Tokyo Drift" is all about the action. And on that count, it won't let you down.

Premiere Ethan Alter

The problems with Tokyo Drift start with its ostensible hero; during the course of this movie, Sean makes so many dumb decisions it's a wonder that anyone wants to be associated with him.

Washington Post Teresa Wiltz

A masterpiece of mediocrity,

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

For all its crashes and flash, this is a movie that drifts away as we watch it. Muscle cars and all, it's often a waste of gas.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The racing sequences are the series' meat and potatoes, but in terms of story, Tokyo Drift barely offers a stalk of asparagus.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

At least Lin's local color make the idiocy fun to watch.

The New York Times Nathan Lee

As in the previous two installments of the Fast and Furious franchise, this largely consists of macho tantrums, vying for the girl, intense vehicular mayhem and high-octane homoeroticism.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jason Anderson

The director also makes a nod to Japan's rich history of genre filmmaking by casting action legend J. J. Sonny Chiba as a cigar-smoking yakuza. Chiba's presence momentarily classes up a passable youths-ploitation flick into a transcendent piece of movie trash.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The problem with contemporary Hollywood isn't that so many of the movies it's churning out are based on formula; it's that so many directors take perfectly good formulas and wreck them with bad filmmaking.

Film Threat Felix Vasques Jr.

It’s a weak sequel, to a weak series.

Austin Chronicle Brian Clark

Racing junkies would be better off browsing the myriad of online drifting videos where the camera doesn't cut and the people don't speak.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It's all about eye candy and the quick tease. It's not over fast enough.

Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand

OK, they squeezed one more lap out of this franchise. It's been a fun ride, but it's time to shut things down. If you get my drift.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Has plenty of fast cars and revving engines. But unless you're a fan of that sort of thing, its stultifying plot and wooden acting is likely to make you drift - off to sleep.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

To call the film noisy and brainless isn't even a criticism - it's unadulterated auto-porn, as shallow and shiny as it wants to be.

Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling

Gets lost in translation.

Village Voice Matt Singer

Like 2 Fast 2 Furious before it, Tokyo Drift is a subculture in search of a compelling story line, and Black's leaden performance makes you pine for the days of Paul Walker.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The F&F franchise ran out of gas half way into the 2001 original.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Lucas Black, who looks as much like a high school kid as George Bernard Shaw, speaks in a thick Southern accent that hasn't been heard on any leading man since the second act of "Our American Cousin."

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Like its predecessors, Tokyo Drift suffers from a terminal lack of levity.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 56 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Christopher P gave it a9:
Everything I wanted in a F&F movie and my pick of the three for being the most watchable. Sure, it often treads into "beyond retarded" realm where the entire premise of the plot is ridiculous (kid goes to a Japanese school when he can't speak Japanese? The Yakuza race sports cars and somehow make money off it without any apparent source? The kid's dad lives in the smallest apartment imaginable, but has an enormous garage that's loaded? Japanese people can't speak Japanese?), and the portrayal of Japanese youth culture is offensive to at least a few people, but do you really care that much? If the answer's yes, there's no point watching, but if you manage to suspend all disbelief of anything ever resembling reality, it's actually pretty fun. There are cars that drive fast, attractive people all over the place, and a lot of dumb action. It all just looks damned cool as it's happening, and I think it does just as well as the other two in that regard--which is the only good reason you'd want to see this to begin with.

Nicholas D gave it a10:
It was very good the movie because like the car and sound of effects and tokyo city.

Justin gave it a2:
This movie isnt that good. I dont know why they had to change the main character of Paul Walker. They were doing such a good job with Paul and once they chagned it to the new guy, it totally messed up the whole thing they had with Paul.

dale l. gave it a10:
Briliant film couldn't of made it more rialistic. The story line was better than all other fast and furious. killing the seans friend was bad and it sort of made the story line go a bit down hill. well done to the makers succesfull film.

salman k. gave it a9:
The movie was deinitely better than the 2nd one.the new environment in form of tokyo was brilliant.thankgod the lead hero was changed.the storyline was stronger than the 2nd movie too and the surprise vin diesel intro was just priceless. the drifting technique was a great change and the whole drag racing fiasco was put to an end.good job guys.

Jon B. gave it a4:
Pitiful attempt to drag out the franchise. Poor acting, worse plot. I was a fan of the first 1, still enjoyed the second, but was half asleep by the middle of this turgid and unnecessary installment. At least the spectacular scenery of Tokyo itself was worth staying awake to watch.

Pedro M. gave it a9:
I think this movie is the best of "The Fast And The Furious" trilogy. It was a great idea to get a main actor with a texan language accent, for example. I also think it's great the way this movie crushes some "movie clichés". The cast is great, having the gorgeous Keiko Kitagawa included. Also, the American Muscle cars are something that makes worth to watch this fantastic movie.

Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, The Universal Pictures

Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, The
Universal Pictures