Posts Tagged ‘Martial Arts Legend’
May 20th, 2009 | 
Author: The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift Widescreen Edition
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift has all the elements that spelled success for its predecessors: Speed, sex, and minimal dialogue. The plot doesn’t need explication; it’s a nonsensical series of confrontations and standoffs that serve to get us from one race to another. Tokyo Drift can most accurately be described as a visual poem about screeching tires, crunching fiberglass, and sleek female skin, set to a killer soundtrack of Japanese pop and hip-hop. The actors are only needed for tight close-ups of narrowed eyes or sweaty hands tightly gripping gearshifts, though Sung Kang, Better Luck Tomorrow, stands out as a vaguely philosophical hoodlum with deadpan charisma. The curved bodies of the cars and the luscious flesh of the women are both shot with a fetishistic hunger. The “drift” style of racing–in which the cars are allowed to slide in order to take sharp turns at high speeds–grabs your eyes; there’s a strange, spectral beauty to rows of cars sliding sideways down a mountain road at night. Also starring Lucas Black (Friday Night Lights) as our wheel-happy hero; Bow Wow (Roll Bounce) as the scam-artist comic relief; and martial arts legend Sonny Chiba (Kill Bill) as a yakuza big shot. –Bret Fetzer
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars Get Ready For An All-New Style of Racing…
Five years after “The Fast and the Furious” sped its way across the silver screen, the third installment in the franchise, “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift”, raced its way into theaters. After two successful entries into a series that most didn’t expect much out of to begin with, can this third iteration featuring an all-new cast, style of racing, and country gain enough traction to build upon the success of its predecessors or will it leave the series simply spinning its tires?
“The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” explores the illegal world of underground street racing in and around Tokyo, Japan. Unlike in the states, the primary style of racing over there is a much more difficult, and outrageous form known as drifting - where drivers’ skills are put to the test as they must navigate hairpin turns at incredible rates of speed. Joining the ranks of these racers is a convicted racer from the United States named Sean (Lucas Black) whose parents had hoped he would be able to start a new life in this foreign land. However, when racing is at the core of your very being, it’s hard to walk away when the temptation of high speeds is calling out to you.
Even though I had seen the first two films in this series, I found myself with little to no interest in seeing this third one. The only reason I could come up with for this lack of confidence in the film, was because I thought the second one was a little weaker than the first, even though it at least featured one returning cast member (Paul Walker for those that don’t recall) which garnered some favor; however for this film there appeared to be no original cast members returning from either of the previous films. So, in my opinion there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of potential for “Tokyo Drift” to actually be all that good. Based on the box office results for this film, I felt that my estimation for the movie was fairly accurate, and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t get around to watching it anytime soon, if ever for that matter. Then, there came along the recently released Blu-ray collection of the trilogy. Because I wanted to own the first two films on Blu-ray, and they were only available in a trilogy box set, I knew that I would end up with the third one anyhow. Which meant that since it was now in my possession, and I had already watched the other two, I may as well put this one into the player and see how it fares by comparison. Much to my surprise, “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” is actually a pretty good movie. Granted it’s not as good as the first film, and is perhaps a little below “2 Fast 2 Furious”; the film still did an admirable job of keeping me entertained to varying degrees from beginning to end.
Written by newcomer to the series, Chris Morgan (”Wanted”), “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift”, was a surprisingly well put together story, albeit with a few contrivances and convenient plot devices employed. I figured that if this series ever made it to a third movie it would most likely be tapped out in terms of story, unless they would be willing to resurrect some of the characters from the previous films and delve into them a bit more. However, I was wrong, because Chris Morgan wisely chose to shake things up dramatically to inject a new sense of life into a franchise that was running the risk of becoming stale in a hurry if the status quo remained intact. The inclusion of the new style of racing (which was incredibly fun to watch, especially for someone that hadn’t really seen it done before), having not just a new city, but an all-new country as the backdrop for the action, and making it more of a fish out of water-esque story opened up several new doors for the series to walk through.
Even though the story brought new energy to the series there were some problems that plagued the script along the way. For starters, the character of Twink (played by Bow Wow) seems to have an endless supply of goods which he sells to whoever has the desired amount of cash. This wouldn’t be a trouble spot for me, except that Twink is merely a high school student, and by all accounts shouldn’t have access to the amount of goods and services he has at his disposal. If the writer really wanted me to believe that Twink was capable of gaining access to all this stuff via stealing or whatever, then that is fine, but I believe that we should have seen this at some point within the story. Instead, his character came off as a little too unbelievable for my liking. Also, the whole plot point of sending Sean to Japan seemed like a big leap for me. Sure he’s apparently gotten into a lot of trouble over in the U.S., but having his mom just give up and ship him over to his dad (who doesn’t seem like he’ll be all that good of an influence) seemed a little too convenient of a way to introduce us to the world of drifting. I know it was necessary to get the character over to Japan, but it could have been achieved within the story any number of ways, and most of them would have been more successful.
The last problem within the story that I will discuss revolves around the drifting style of racing that the movie focuses upon. I appreciated that a new style was introduced (as I mentioned a moment ago); however, there seemed to be numerous times that the characters opted to drift (unnecessarily) rather than drive straight (as in the previous two films). This was especially evident during a car chase sequence where all the drivers were drifting around traffic and other miscellaneous obstructions, when if they had simply moved over slightly they could’ve just driven straight (or relatively straight), thus gaining more speed to outrun their pursuers. It was due to these weaknesses within the story that caused several lapses in believability, resulting in a somewhat diminished opinion for the film.
Helming this third venture into the high-octane series is director Justin Lin (”Annapolis”). Lin brings a somewhat more grounded sense to this film than what was showcased in the previous film under the direction of John Singleton. The majority of the action seemed to be done using real cars, with little CGI enhancement being employed. The second film used plenty of real cars as well, but numerous sequences displayed obvious CGI usage in place of the real deal. With “Tokyo Drift”, director Justin Lin appeared to stretch himself a bit more as a director, getting away from the straight-forward, generic camera style he used in his previous American film “Annapolis”. For a movie such as “Tokyo Drift” to really fit in with the rest of the series, it requires that a little more flair be brought to the camera work, and Lin came through surprisingly well. He offered up a slick piece of American cinema that fits in perfectly with the tone and feel of the previous two films, while establishing the movie as a standalone entity within the franchise.
The cast for this film was comprised of numerous young acting talents, some more capable than others at their craft, and based on most of the cast member’s limited experience, I really didn’t expect much out of them either. As you can see by now there were several factors that led to me viewing this film with rather low expectations. Anyways, leading the cast is actor Lucas Black (”Jarhead”) who gives a decent, although flawed performance as Sean. With a slight southern drawl, that is inconsistent in thickness throughout his entire performance, and a few instances where Lucas portrayed a somewhat down home country charm when attempting to woo the ladies, there weren’t too many layers or points of interest to be found in his character. Truth be told, Lucas was probably the weakest cast member performance wise, showing nary a hint of emotion beyond a slight smirk or chuckle here and there, which does cause a bit of a problem due to the fact that his was the lead role.
Thankfully, many of his supporting cast members were there to help mask his shortcomings as an actor. Rapper turned actor Bow Wow (formerly Lil’ Bow Wow) has become quite the decent performer with roles ranging from TV appearances (”Smallville”) to several feature films (”The Johnson Family Vacation” and “Roll Bounce”). Out of all the roles I have seen him in, I think that his character of Twink in this film, is probably the most interesting, and likely the most fun to play. From his eccentric taste in cars (an Incredible Hulk themed car), to his penchant for finding virtually any and every possible good that his customers requested, almost nothing about Twink was normal. Even though his character pushes the limits of believability in places, Bow Wow does his level best to keep the character as grounded as possible, and delivers a solid performance in the process.
Alongside Bow Wow was actor Sung Kang (”Live Free or Die Hard”) as Han, a talented drifter, who befriends and trains Sean in the ways of drifting. Sung created a very interesting character in Han, by having him be as much of an outcast among the Asian community of street racers as Sean was being an American in their midst. I liked the way Sung always played Han as if he longed for a way out of the illegal street racing world he almost seems trapped by, and the way he looks at his “friends” in that world shows a clear contempt for some of the actions they take in order to get ahead. His was a character that was all about honor both on and off the track, and out of all the cast he was probably the most interesting of characters on display.
Aside from the three characters mentioned above, the remainder of the cast was relegated to either quasi-cameo appearances or merely one-dimensional antagonists. Most of the cast whether in a more developed role or not-so developed did a good job with their respective characters. Besides Lucas Black, who perhaps with acting classes could do much better work, the cast worked out very well, and managed to keep the movie’s story interesting without relying solely on the racing to propel the film from start to finish.
“The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” was an energetic and fun ride that I’m sure introduced many of us to a new style of racing, but if you’re like me you still preferred the other way instead. The film attempted to stand on its own as a movie without tying directly into what had come before it. In that respect, I feel that “Tokyo Drift” was a success of a movie; however, it sustained a much weaker box office than the previous two films, so perhaps this drastic of a change-up in a single installment wasn’t the best of choices for this film’s sake.
As a side note, the title for this movie seemed a bit too long in my estimation; couldn’t we have just stuck a number 3 on the end of the original title and called it a day? That’s all I’m saying.
“The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” is rated PG-13 for violence and language.
5 Stars Round Round Get Around I get around
This is a fun movie. Probably my favorite of the series, and the most realistic!
5 Stars They were right about it..
It was an entertaining movie with a bunch of action. I heard that it was a good movie from some friends and family and they were right. There were some nice and some interesting cars in this movie and I felt like I wanted to try some drifting myself.
4 Stars Boku no namae wa Saru Kyuju kyu. Anata?
This film is a lot of fun! Lots of great action, and I just flat get a kick out of watching drift cars doing their thing (these ridiculous “Drift Comps” are stupid and boring. Drifting was created for mountain roads, NOT parking lots or sections of GP track like you see on TV).One thing I have issue with is the way the Yakuza is portrayed in the film. Yakuza are ruthless and lethal in the way they do business. The Yakuza seem to be near-bumbling fools in “Tokyo Drift”. It was likewise nice to see “Konishiki” in the bathhouse sequence (he was one of America’s premiere Sumo Wrestlers in Japan, back in the late 80’s).Lucas Black has come a ways from his “Sling Blade” role some years back. He plays culture shock well. Japan HAS come far from it’s post-war reconstruction, to be a world leader in technology, especially robotics.”Fast and the Furious, Tokyo Drift” departs from the two previous films in location and actors, but I see that the next “F and F” film returns to the combo that started it all- Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. Hope it turns out great, because the first three films were!!
2 Stars OK………
this would have been alot better if it was an american movie. there is to much drifting. they dont race like amercans. if you like the other 2, than you probaly can live without this.
A novel blend of doomsday thriller and meditative science fiction, Danny Boyle’s Sunshine imagines a disturbing future in which mankind must re-ignite the sun or face total extinction. A team of scientists and crew members (played by an eclectic cast that includes Cillian Murphy from Boyle’s 28 Days Later, The Fantastic Four’s Chris Evans, Rose Byrne of TV’s Damages, and martial-arts legend Michelle Yeoh) is dispatched to the dying star, but disaster strikes from almost every conceivable angle; as the crew is whittled down by accidents and psychological breaks, the survivors must discover a way to carry out the mission or seal the fate of the world’s population. Alternately exciting and pensive, Sunshine’s dichotomous tone may throw viewers expecting a special-effects bonanza (though the film’s visuals are frequently stunning), but for those who recall such cerebral ’70s efforts as Silent Running and Phase IV, Boyle’s unusual take will be refreshing and even fascinating. The DVD includes commentaries by Boyle and Dr. Brian Cox, who served as the film’s science advisor; Boyle also lends his voice to a brace of deleted scenes, including an alternate ending (which doesn’t improve on the one used in the film). Thorough production diaries cover every aspect of the film’s execution, from casting to special effects design, while a pair of unrelated short films by Chris Shepherd and Dan Arnold seems to be included only as a gesture of Boyle’s appreciation for these directors. –Paul Gaita
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Excellent
I found this movie to be very good. Many people are giving it a low rating (or bad review) due to the flaws in the science in the movie. Also, some are just staring at the movie and not analyzing it to get the whole truth to it. There is a lot of meaning behind the movie if you pay attention closely to it.
5 Stars Harrowing Study of Man’s Insignificance in the Universe
Sunshine, released in theaters in 2007, was advertised under the premise that “Danny Boyle has re-ignited the science fiction genre”. A bit of a conceit, I thought, but I took the bait. The tagline couldn’t have been more accurate. I saw the film theatrically six times, as Sunshine turned out to be one of the most visually captivating and psychologically devastating films produced in the genre since Alien or Blade Runner. The premise behind Sunshine is simple. Our sun is dying. An attempt was made to “kick start” Sol’s inscrutable fusion processes using a “stellar bomb” of dark matter, but this mission presumably failed. A second mission is launched to reattempt the momentous task. As the ship — Icarus II — and her crew near the sun, things start to fall apart. I will not elaborate further on the way things transpire, as other reviewers have already seen fit to lay out the plot for would-be viewers. What I will tell you is that Sunshine packs a visceral punch lacking in at least 95% of the science fiction films made in the past 15 years.
First of all, there is a great deal of clamor about the “bad science” of the film and the “improbabilities” of the plot. Those perpetuating this hue and cry would do well to watch the DVD or Blu-Ray with the commentary from Dr. Brian Cox activated. He cogently, and in layman’s terms, explains how our sun might (and I say might — because this film is fiction and the scientific theories are yet untested) be disrupted enough to “die out”. Also, Cox points out all of the pecadilloes in Sunshine and notes that the decision to “break the laws of physics” in places was a conscious choice by the writer and director, driven by financial concerns and dramatic license. Thus, scientific accuracy was definitely sacrificed in places. We know this. In Sunshine, there’s “sound” in space. There’s no plausible means of artificial gravity on board the ship. You see people freeze after seconds in a vacuum. I have no problem overlooking these mistakes in light of the mood and tension evoked in Sunshine. Besides, can you name one science fiction movie set in space — 2001 included — that “gets everything right” physics-wise? Let’s move on.
Sunshine is a visual treat for the fan of serious science fiction. The Icarus II, in all of its utilitarian sprawl, is a majestic craft to watch onscreen. The special effects involving the sun, which are numerous in light of the plot, are awe-inspiring. Lighting, sound, and set design tightly coalesce to remind the audience that human life is frail and that space is, literally, an unkind place for mankind. Boyle borrows stylishly from 2001, Alien, and Soderbergh’s Solaris for his Icarus II design and his “extra-vehicular shots”.
The ensemble cast, as the crew of Icarus II, is superb. Boyle and Alex Garland created characters for the actors to play — not caricatures — each with believable faults and strengths. Some, like Rose Byrne’s Cassie, are nurturing and sensitive; others are manic and obsessive (Trey); selfish (Harvey); goal-driven and unshakable (Mace); and enigmatic (Cillian Murphy’s Capa). Cillian turns in one of the best performances of his career — having intently studied young physicists at work to portray his role on screen. The psychological transformation each character undergoes as the film progresses begs the viewer to ask: “how would I react under these circumstances?” This is the mark of top-notch acting, writing, and directing.
John Murphy’s soundtrack is, undoubtedly, one of the best I have heard and perhaps the brightest star in this cinematic firmnament. In collaboration with the band Underworld, Murphy creates an aural backdrop of pain, triumph, wonder, and atmosphere. A certain composition repeats twice in the film — first at the end of the “heat shield” repair and again before and during Capa’s final spacewalk — that is so emotionally overwhelming in its melodic purity it becomes unforgettable. It is reminiscent, both in tone and in effectiveness, of Hans Zimmer’s “Journey to the Line” (as heard in the WWII film “The Thin Red Line”). Sunshine would be a four-star affair were it not for the overarching presence of Murphy’s impeccable score.
The message of the film — and, yes, it has one — is that humanity’s existence is not guaranteed, and that the universe and our solar system is at once mysterious, uncaring, breathtaking, unconscionably pernicious — and perhaps as finite and fragile as we are. Do not expect a rollercoaster ride of mindless action or thrills. Expect atmosphere, choking tension, philosophical conundrums, and a thorough exploration of the perils of manned spaceflight. You don’t have to leave your grey matter at the door before pressing the play button here.
In the end, it will be up to you, as the viewer, to decide whether Sunshine is a classic science fiction outing or not. However, I can tell you that the film will move you in some way, shape, or form — and is worth a watch, whether you are a die-hard or casual science fiction fan.
5 Stars The Sun is shining on this movie
This was an amazing movie: from the effects to the plot to the acting to the directing. Just a great movie from start to finish. Also a must on blu-ray, the color’s and sound are perfect. This is not a huge hollywood blockbuster, but they made it seem like one.
As with all blu-ray disc’s, if you can find it cheaper than your BB store, which should be easy, then get it.
1 Star Pigs in space
The plot is a giant spaceship is supposed to deliver a bomb which is needed to restart the sun’s pilot light. The first thing which will occur to you when watching this thing is why a future humanity capable of building a machine which can go to the sun and blow it up can only recruit a couple of hipster rejects from Apple Computer ads. I mean, the crew of this space ship is completely despicable. They’re incompetent, horrible, flabby dimwits. One of the characters is vaguely astronaut like, in a sort of working class incompetent way, but of course he fights like a girl and has the self control of … a 20-something skinny hipster from Brooklyn who fights like a woman. Most of the time, the characters strut and pout exactly like weaseley Brooklyn hipsters. I couldn’t help but think, if this is the best humanity of the future can come up with, humanity deserved to die much more horribly than by “global cooling.” Roger Ebert, the old windbag, insists they’re acting like real astronauts in the whole movie. Evidently, he’s never socialized with an astronaut, and has a very poor mental picture of what such people are like. I’ll give you a hint Rog: they tend to be competent, very methodical, team oriented and calm people. They don’t tend to be weepy nincompoops with the self control of an adolescent chimpanzee. If astronauts were like that, every time something happened in space, they’d die. Everyone in the movie is completely self centered and amoral, and they all seem about as interested in doing their jobs as any hipster poseur working in a record store. Except they are all inexplicably willing to commit suicide for their record store.
Pinbacker, the bad guy, is presumably a reference to Pinback in Dark Star, though he was played with a Russian accent for some reason (I don’t think Pinbacker is a Russian name). Pinbacker’s motivation is that he’s a religious nut, and of course, Russian religious nuts are very common villains in real life. It’s funny how much the movie resembles Dark Star: more than it probably wanted to. Despite taking itself very seriously, this movie ended up a kind of low comedy in the vein of Dark Star. This movie was really a scene for scene copy of many other science fiction and horror movies. The horror bits in the second half of it were all lifted from Alien and Hellraiser (the villain, duh: the Hellraiser villain). The dramatic space scenes were scene for scene copies from Star Trek the Motion Picture and 2001. It was like the director went out to Blockbuster and rented a half dozen special effects movies, stuck them in a blender, and published his findings.
Despite humanity being able to build interplanetary atom bombs the size of Manhatten, somehow they are forced to build computers that can be destroyed in a few minutes by removing it from a cooling liquid. While I’m complaining about the poor computer engineering: the computer evidently requires gravity to keep the damn liquid in place. Even if the computer was on a dinghy or railcar, where there is actual gravity, it would seem this would be a bad idea. I mean, why not just stick the whole thing in one of those pieces of miracle technology: the plastic jar? Instead, they make the whole space ship rely on a piece of technology which explodes when some liquid sloshes around a little bit. The science in this movie makes less sense than most science fiction. I’m not talking about ordinary dumbness, like hearing dramatic sounds in the vacuum of space; this is magnificent dumbness. No, the sun is not so bright near the orbit of Mercury that it would light astronauts on fire. If it were, it would light Mercury on fire: duh. There is no “radio dead zone” near Mercury, and wouldn’t be even if something weird happened to the solar wind. Also, why does it take 24 hours for packet radio to reach earth, when light only takes 8 minutes? When people go into space, the danger isn’t that they’ll freeze into meat popsicles, the danger is that their blood will boil out of their lungs. Also, when a square object tumbles around, all the occupants inside that square object will get turned into jelly which gets smeared around the edges, even if there is some kind of artificial gravity inside it. Finally, they made a huge deal out of having to send a bunch of people along with their big bomb to light it off, but at the end of the day, the only thing the people really needed to do was press a big red button to do the deed. Humanity has had reliable ICBM’s since the late 1950s; it doesn’t make much sense to me that they’d need to build giant space yachts with oxygen gardens to do the job of an ICBM, which only required vacuum tube level computing in the 1950s. The ’scientist commentary’ with the DVD is beyond absurd; I’m a real scientist, and I’m not getting paid to tell you lies: this is real science commentary. The science in this movie is insanely, preposterously and gratuitously dumb. Liberal arts majors who care nothing for science should not make “hard science fiction” movies.
The look and soundtrack of the thing is good. They did a very clever thing in keeping most of the interior of the space ship sort of blue greyish colored, so when you look at the shots of the sun, they look much more awe inspiring. The giant space ship is so big, you’re unable to really keep it in your mind as one object. it also seems to resemble underwater drilling platforms in many ways. This is kind of absurd, in that it’s all misty and dark and stuff; in space nothing can be misty: you’ll either see it or you won’t, because there is no gas in space to diffuse the light. But it’s still evocative and pleasant to look at. I’d say it’s fun to turn your brain off for 2 hours, but really, the first hour is insanely boring, so you’ll probably fall asleep before you get to the exciting parts where the cast is mercifully and gloriously dispatched, putting them out of your misery.
5 Stars Today’s “2001″
With it’s captivating cinematography, gripping storyline, and fantastic character interaction, I daresay that “Sunshine” may well be the “2001: A Space Odyssey” of today.
“Sunshine” positively blew me away upon first look. This masterful film manages to blend detailed science with engaging fiction perfectly. To those of you who argue about the timeline of the Sun’s waning…take it as an alternate scenario to the status quo–IF this were the situation, then “Sunshine” is how it might play out.
The cinematography is beautiful and captivating. As always, Danny Boyle manages to pull his audience in to his film and keep them locked in. Never before have I seen such an amazing and awe-inspiring look at our System’s center, short of NASA footage.
Cillian Murphy plays a great role, both stoic and complex simultaneously. Chris Evans manages to pull away from his earlier “pop” roles (”Fantastic Four,” “Not Another Teen Movie”) long enough to play a very strong character in the film, playing of Cillian (and vice-versa) perfectly.
This is a must-see for the science-fiction fanatic. This is a must-own for anyone who considers themselves to be a connoisseur of cinema. Get this film.
The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD HD DVD
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift has all the elements that spelled success for its predecessors: Speed, sex, and minimal dialogue. The plot doesn’t need explication; it’s a nonsensical series of confrontations and standoffs that serve to get us from one race to another. Tokyo Drift can most accurately be described as a visual poem about screeching tires, crunching fiberglass, and sleek female skin, set to a killer soundtrack of Japanese pop and hip-hop. The actors are only needed for tight close-ups of narrowed eyes or sweaty hands tightly gripping gearshifts, though Sung Kang, Better Luck Tomorrow, stands out as a vaguely philosophical hoodlum with deadpan charisma. The curved bodies of the cars and the luscious flesh of the women are both shot with a fetishistic hunger. The “drift” style of racing–in which the cars are allowed to slide in order to take sharp turns at high speeds–grabs your eyes; there’s a strange, spectral beauty to rows of cars sliding sideways down a mountain road at night. Also starring Lucas Black (Friday Night Lights) as our wheel-happy hero; Bow Wow (Roll Bounce) as the scam-artist comic relief; and martial arts legend Sonny Chiba (Kill Bill) as a yakuza big shot. –Bret Fetzer
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars The Fast and the Furious - Tokyo Drift (Widescreen Edition) by Lucas Black (II)
Han was so HOT, that I can’t take my eyes out of him! It was sad that HAn died.
5 Stars Awesome!
This product arrived very quickly and was just as promised. It made my 11 yr old very happy this christmas 
4 Stars Fast and the Spurious
I admit that I have put this movie off for quite some time. I liked the first movie and felt that the absence of all original stars would make this lame. I was only partially correct.
The predictable obvious:
-There will be a substitute for Paul Walker.
Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) is an average substitute. While a competent actor, he doesn’t quite have the big man on campus/sliver spoon/prom king vibe that Paul Walker oozed.
-There will be a substitute for Vin Diesel.
D.K. “Drift King” (Brian Tee) is not even half of what Diesel was, despite the fact that he’s supposed to be linked to Yakuza. To be quite honest, he’s neither as tough as either of Vin Diesel’s bearded sycophants for the original, nor the original Asian bad guy.
-There will be copious hot women.
This was improvement over the original. It would be pointless to prove this FACT; just go to the IMDB page and click the link for each actress. Then google the ones that don’t have pictures. Trust me on this. For starters, however: Nathalie Kelley, Nikki Griffin, Ashika Gogna, Caroline de Souza Correa, Verena Mei.
-There will be a ton of racing and fancy cars.
The racing in this movie is undoubtedly better than the original. In fact, there appears to be more racing than storyline, which is probably for the best. As for that…
American kid gets in trouble for racing - he’s been in trouble before. He’s forced to go to Japan to live with his Navy father. In a matter of not time he finds the racing scene in Japan, where “drifting” is all the rage - it’s nothing new, they did it on the Dukes of Hazzard all the time. Boy wrecks car, owes someone car, gets involved in shady criminal underworld, becomes inexplicably trusted and befriended by nearly all popular people in school. Boy gets girl, learns to race, wins final race, overcomes difficulties, saves the day. Aside from that, there a few highly ridiculous parts of the script - particularly a gaijin taking on the Yakuza in any format and Bow Wow’s groan inducing performance/subplot - that take quite a bit away from the movie.
It’s exactly what one would expect. It lacks the “star” power of the original, but makes up for it with hot women and fast cars…or is it the other way around?
5 Stars The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
I thought it was a very good movie with a great storyline…and of course the cars were awesome as usual. Looking forward to the next Fast and the Furious movie….
2 Stars WHO CAST FORREST GUMP?
Two big pet peeves with this movie… 1) The DUMB, and I mean DUMB accent of the lead actor. There’s a reason why we in America don’t cast a lot of hill billies in movies. Why they chose to use a lead character who sounds like he fell off a turnip truck (or faked that accent) I don’t know. But I found it annoying and distracting. I was just waiting for him to say, “Life is like a box of car parts…”. 2) Little bow wow, or whatever the other kid’s name is, is annoying too. Now the good news… over all it’s not a bad movie in the sense that they at least tried some new stuff… taking the action to Japan (where drifting originated). And the lead actress, the woman who plays the lead actor’s love interest is HOT. I mean smoking HOT. A mix of something and something. She alone is worth the price of admission. Finally, there were some pretty good racing scenes. And the cameo appearance at the end of the movie was cool.