For starters, the lead role is played by Lucas Black, an actor whose performance is better only than his southern accent. He’s a decent good guy and someone that you can root for without hesitation, but it always feels as though he’s not all there. Of course, the rest of the cast is hardly any better with Bow Wow playing the wisecracking sidekick and Brian Tee playing the lead villain. There is a light spot on the cast, though, in the form of Brian Goodman. Goodman only has a small role as Black’s father but he’s the best of the bunch which only makes it easier to make comparisons to the rest of the cast.
There isn’t much depth to the movie, which is basically a showcase for drag racing. The characters are two-dimensional and the story is relatively flat and unoriginal. There isn’t much to latch onto in The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift. The flick is not that thrilling, either. The drift that the title refers to is a sometimes artsy driving technique. This makes for a lot of showing off and not much action. Aside from the grand finale and a few other select sequences, the movie settles for the glitz of the dangerous sport instead of the excitement.
That is where the movie makes its fatal mistake. As many problems as The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift has, the worst is its adoption of The Fast And The Furious title. The film is the third in the franchise and it features an entirely new cast (save for a special appearance at the end). The cars take on characters themselves so that is a constant in all three installments but my qualm lies deeper than that. The Fast And The Furious and its sequel 2 Fast, 2 Furious were pretty explosive motion pictures. While the second was a step down from the first, it was still an entertaining event for moviegoers.
The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift sours the franchise’s reputation for being your one-stop shop for fast and furious fun. It is the action equivalent of the American Pie Presents label for straight-to-DVD comedies. Had the flick dropped the first five words of the title and stuck with Tokyo Drift, it would have been an above average flick. However, as is, it begs to be compared to its two predecessors and this allows its failures to shine through – and, as I’ve explained, there are a lot.
The sequel picks up with Sean Boswell (Black), a high school student who has a passion for fast cars. (Sidenote: None of the high school students look nearly young enough to even be in college.) When a race through a new housing community goes bad, Sean finds himself in trouble with the law for the last time. His mother sends him to Tokyo, Japan where his father resides. Sean’s father warns him to stay away from cars but, of course, he doesn’t listen. He meets Twinkie (Bow Wow) and is suddenly thrust back into the world of racing.
His skills are lacking, though, since everyone in Tokyo takes pride in their ability to drift – a technique that helps drivers maneuver difficult turns. Han, a talented driver with all the right connections played by Sung Kang, takes interest in Sean and begins to teach him how to drift. This partnership combined with Sean’s growing affection for a girl named Neela played by Nathalie Kelley pits Sean against the Drift King (Tee), the nephew of a Tokyo mob boss. Now, even Sean’s fast driving and Han’s fancy tricks may not keep them alive.
The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift is not a waste of time but it never really kicks the action into drive. When the filmmakers decide to utilize the title of a high-octane franchise, they should have injected the flick with enough adrenaline to keep the audience on the edges of their seats. This sequel simply doesn’t do that. It is like we are sitting at the traffic light and, when it turns green, the movie stalls. If they were going to use a new cast, you’d think they would have at least made sure the movie had a full tank.
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