Some century soon, fossil fuels and the internal-combustion engine may lose their stranglehold on American lifestyles and movies. But in the meantime, they get a formidable workout in “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” third in the gas-guzzling series that began in the L.A. fast lane with 2001’s “The Fast and the Furious,” took a wrong turn or two with the Miami-set “2 Fast 2 Furious” (2003) and now winds up in a Tokyo dead end in director Justin Lin’s explosive but formula-clogged sequel.
Like the first two “F&F” movies, “Tokyo Drift” is an ode to cars and the guys who drive them. In this case, that means steely-eyed pedal-to-the-metal street outlaws gunning their gaudy vehicles in illegal street races after snarling and trying to steal each other’s women.
The hero-of-sorts, replacing blond racer/undercover guy Brian (Paul Walker) of the first two movies, is car fiend Sean Boswell (played by Lucas Black of “Sling Blade”). Sean is a chip-on-his-shoulder Southern type who flirts with a top driver’s girlfriend (Nikki Griffin), races with him (Zachery Bryan), messes them up and gets sent to Tokyo to live with his military dad (Brian Goodman). There, he discovers the source of the title: the underground racing subculture of “drifting.”
Drifting is a Japanese phenomenon that often looks like a cross of drag racing and a trackless roller-coaster ride. It originated, according to the “Tokyo Drift” press notes, in rural Japan, with drivers racing down mountain roads, navigating hairpin curves at high speeds. Then it migrated to the cities.
There’s a mountain race in “Tokyo Drift,” too, though the first sample we see takes place in a crowded multilevel Tokyo parking lot where Sean flirts with yet another girlfriend, Neela (Nathalie Kelley), alienates another top gun driver, D.K., a.k.a. “Drift King” (Brian Tee), and finds himself on the wrong side of a local drifting clique and the Yakuza.
This time around, Sean acquires a new friend, Twinkie (played by rapper Bow Wow) and a patron, Han (Sung Kang, one of the stars of Lin’s breakthrough movie, “Better Luck Tomorrow”). With their encouragement, Sean learns how to drift, racing toward the climax we all know is coming.
All the “Fast and Furious” movies echo the chickie run scene in “Rebel Without a Cause,” which is copied here.
Since “Rebel ” is a favorite of mine, you’d think I’d enjoy this run-and-gun trilogy too. But I didn’t. In “Tokyo Drift,” the moviemakers spend much less energy on the people and their emotions than on the races and cars. Screenwriter Chris Morgan, who concocted “Cellular,” yet another mechanical action movie, doesn’t waste much time on feeling or atmosphere, even if director Lin occasionally catches a little.
Technically, “Tokyo Drift” is a killer movie; the race scenes are dynamic and exciting. But it’s the kind of purely physical expertise that can annoy as well as divert. Black swaggers and smirks as if he were trying to cop a Vin Diesel prize. Tee sneers and Bow Wow gabs, almost non-stop. Of the main players, only Kang really scores, giving Han such casual charisma you may wish that he had been the central character.
Lin’s “Better Luck Tomorrow” was a bit overrated. But it connected far more entertainingly than “Tokyo Drift” does. 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 Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift’
(star)(star)
Directed by Justin Lin; written by Chris Morgan; photographed by Stephen F. Windon; edited by Fred Raskin, Kelly Matsumoto; production designed by Ida Random; music by Brian Tyler; produced by Neal H. Moritz. A Universal Pictures release; opens Friday. Running time: 1:45.
Sean Boswell …………… Lucas Black
Twinkie ……………….. Bow Wow
Neela …………………. Nathalie Kelley
D.K. ………………….. Brian Tee
Han …………………… Sung Kang
Uncle Kamata …………… JJ Sonny Chiba
Morimoto ………………. Leonardo Nam
MPAA rating: PG-13 (for reckless and illegal behavior involving teens, violence, language and sexual content).
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mwilmington@tribune.com
