The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift 2006

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: 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. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Despite all the silliness the drift races are gripping, and director Justin Lin captures Tokyo's energy and glitter far better than Sofia Coppola. Read more

Judy Chia Hui Hsu, Seattle Times: Put aside the topic and title, and you've got a slick car-racing movie set in a sexy metropolis with a likable teen hero that stands just fine on its own. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: The whole thing is preposterous. The acting is so awful, some of the worst performances I've seen in a long, long time. Read more

Bob Townsend, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The adrenaline-charged racing sequences have a kind of brutally modern elegance. But when their fingers slip from the nitro fuel-injection buttons and the teens are forced to say a few syllables, big chunks of the movie come to a tire-screeching halt. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: The racing sequences are the series' meat and potatoes, but in terms of story, Tokyo Drift barely offers a stalk of asparagus. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: Director Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow) goes back to basics, back to what everyone liked about the original, namely mindless car-racing fun. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The cars only flirt with destruction. And the movie only flirts with entertainment. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: 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. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: A crazy-cool screech of a movie, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is a complete gas, a mad cross-cultural twist on a near-forgotten film genre that keeps your eyes glued to the screen. Read more

Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly: The third movie in the Bad News Bears series, a notable turkey, went to Japan. That trip spells certain doom for the Fast and the Furious franchise as well. Read more

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: Think of the countless car chases you've seen at the movies. Then catch Tokyo Drift to understand how this movie, as silly as it is, offers something different and fresh. For fans of the genre, that's a stunt worth getting revved up for. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: To call it a great film would be to oversell it, but as a fun, fascinating work of kinetic art, a 100-minute visual spectacle, it's a knockout. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: 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. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Tokyo Drift's single contribution to the F&F formula comes with the word 'Drift,' which isn't just a reference to what your attention might do while you're watching this flashy, dull movie. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: The thin story and thinner characters are just setups for the race sequences, which are punctuated by lavish parties where lithe women seem to outnumber the guys by a 5-to-1 ratio. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: This thing hums along like a rebuilt vintage turbine compared with [director] Lin's previous, unfortunate Annapolis. Read more

Steven Snyder, Newark Star-Ledger: Unlike the campy 2001 Vin Diesel vehicle that started it all, what's missing in this third incarnation is any sense of fun, overrun by the forced seriousness of a soap opera mistaking itself for serious drama. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: 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. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: This is an exceptionally stupid and irresponsible movie on some levels. But it does score points for style and exotic location. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Aside from trying my patience, the film offered one important lesson: never again attend a movie with the words 'fast' and 'furious' both in the title. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It delivers all the races and crashes you could possibly desire, and a little more. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: 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. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It quickly tanks, thanks to a lead character with no goals, focus, appeal or intelligence and a lead actor who's just a little too convincing at playing a dunce. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Jason Anderson, Globe and Mail: Anyone who still longs to see gaijin yahoos tear up Tokyo's streets will be appeased by the high-speed action in this perfunctory but reasonably efficient entry in the franchise spawned by the 2001 surprise hit The Fast and the Furious. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is vile, moronic, sexist and possibly harmful to society. As vile, moronic, sexist and possibly harmful entertainments go, however, it is frequently a hoot. Read more

Derek Adams, Time Out: True, it tries to be tongue-in-cheek, but really it's just cheek. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: You've seen it all before, except that you haven't, not quite this way. Read more

Matt Singer, Village Voice: 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. Read more