Metascore
46 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 31 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 31
  2. Negative: 9 out of 31
  1. 83
    The opening half-hour may prove to be a disreputable classic of pedal-to-the-metal filmmaking.
  2. 75
    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.
  3. 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.
  4. 70
    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.
  5. Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    70
    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.
  6. Despite all the silliness the drift races are gripping, and director Justin Lin captures Tokyo's energy and glitter far better than Sofia Coppola.
  7. As idiot car-crash movies go, "Tokyo Drift" is pretty fun, and certainly a more-than-decent entry in this franchise.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    50
    The movie teaches us that you can flip your car down a mountain 15 times and walk away from it with two Tylenol.
  12. 50
    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.
  13. Reviewed by: Ethan Alter
    50
    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.
  14. Reviewed by: Jason Anderson
    50
    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.
  15. At least Lin's local color make the idiocy fun to watch.
  16. 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.
  17. Reviewed by: Nathan Lee
    50
    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.
  18. 50
    A masterpiece of mediocrity,
  19. 50
    The racing sequences are the series' meat and potatoes, but in terms of story, Tokyo Drift barely offers a stalk of asparagus.
  20. Reviewed by: Felix Vasques Jr.
    40
    It's a weak sequel, to a weak series.
  21. Reviewed by: Brian Clark
    40
    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.
  22. 40
    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.
  23. 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.
  24. 38
    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.
  25. Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    38
    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.
  26. 38
    It's all about eye candy and the quick tease. It's not over fast enough.
  27. Reviewed by: Gregory Kirschling
    33
    Gets lost in translation.
  28. Reviewed by: Matt Singer
    30
    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.
  29. 25
    The F&F franchise ran out of gas half way into the 2001 original.
  30. 25
    Like its predecessors, Tokyo Drift suffers from a terminal lack of levity.
  31. 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."
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 88 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 35
  2. Negative: 5 out of 35
  1. AshleyF.
    2
    Tokyo Drift did NOT have the potential of "The Fast and the furious" or "2 Fast, 2 Furious. " In my opinion this movie could have been done much better. This movie bored me to tears, it’s really a disappointment. The first two movies kept me on the edge of my seat, and kept me talking all week. Tokyo Drift is a let down and a fake. For example there are hardly ANY races in which the prize is the car, this movie makes me sick and I want to vomit all over the TV when its on. Full Review »
  2. JustinS.
    5
    Laughably bad. There were some parts that were just unintentionally hilarious. They try to have some sense of plot but the acting and script is so bad that its unwatchable without a sense of humor. One of my favorite parts was when a character addressed another character named Han by saying "Hey Han" and sure enough subtitles showed up saying "Hey Han". The action is OK, but even the drifting gets boring after a while. A last minute cameo by a star of the original does nothing to save this ridiculously horrible film. Full Review »
  3. What happens when none of your main cast want to commit themselves full-time to a sequel in a franchise? You say **** you!" and go ahead with the film anyway, of course! Tokyo Drift couldn't feel more out of place in the Fast and the Furious cash-cow farm if it were dressed in army fatigues and marched out on the front lines of the Vietnam war - the very fact that Paul Walker of all people left this script well-enough alone speaks volumes for the obnoxious tripe held within its pages. Our hero, the ridiculously accented, age confused yuppie, is so dopey and stupid in his delivery and very presence on the screen that it makes you think just how dangerous to the brain inhaling so much exhaust fume really is. When you are being out-acted by ****ing Bow Wow (whose presence in Tokyo is a mystery so intriguing that that he could have his own spin-off) it's time to just walk away from Hollywood in shame. Considering Lucas Black has only had four small-time parts in the six years since this travesty, it seems someone else shared my thoughts. Okay, so let's give the movie a chance and dissect the plot for a minute. Black is a high-school student (at 24 years old, somehow) who races cars, and in order to avoid being convicted of reckless driving charges, he moves to Tokyo. HOLY ****ING **** Now, it's not like the stories of the other films in the series were oscar-winning masterpieces, but this third instalment is so small in its scope that it’s more akin to a retarded made-for-TV production than a logical continuation of the Fast and Furious canon. Through the movie, he is met with cardboard cut-out supporting characters, such as: the black sidekick, the Asian mentor, the love interest, the unreasonable antagonist, the disapproving father, and the rich gangster that Black gets in deep with. Whoopty-whoop! As incredibly well-worn as these character templates are, sometimes it just isn't good enough to copy everyone else. Hell, The Fast and the Furious has dominated the car-racing genre for the last eleven years; you are allowed and even expected at this point to take a few ****ing risks with your story. DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT. The other movies exist quite easily without boring you with constant autophilia and giant racing circle-jerks. That being said, the movie goes away from high-school drama in the last act, and just becomes a ****ty yakuza pic. Which would you rather? Hell if I know, both ideas are **** So what positives are there to gain from watching this? I suppose it's entertaining in a 'so bad it's good' kind of way, but in this case it's more like 'so bad it's watchable'. Nathalie Kelley is okay to look at, despite her weirdly shaped head, and whenever Black tries to act it's pretty hilarious. But that's it; for a film called 'The Fast and the Furious', it's kind of lame when the best parts about it is when it is being neither (which is pretty much the whole time, so maybe it is good?) Written for: www.webbinghaus.tumblr.com Full Review »