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Friday, June 16, 2006
'Fast and Furious' is adrenaline-packed silliness
The country and the mechanical landscape (not to mention the entire cast) is new in "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," but the high-octane mix of high speed, slick style and gear-head stupidity is the same in the third installment of the street-racing cinema brand name.
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View all photosThis time around, Lucas Black plays the cocky American idiot, a reckless street maverick saved from juvie hall by a one-way ticket to Tokyo to live with his estranged Army officer dad. He can't speak the language, but unerring instinct for trouble lands him in a race, indebts himself to an oddly fraternal local hood (Sung Kang) and makes an enemy of a Yakuza-connected criminal and local racing hero (Brian Tee). All within 24 hours of landing.
Losing only makes him determined to master the art of "drift," Tokyo's homegrown spin on street racing that uses shifting, braking and surging through controlled skids on hairpin turns at high speed. It looks like the car chase equivalent of speed skating and it gives the film a new angle on the outlaw racing movie.
The rest is as silly as it seems. His determination to take on the champ in an illegal road race rematch (blessed, of all things, by Sonny Chiba as a Yakuza crime lord) is played as a point of honor and proof of his newfound maturity and responsibility. Director Justin Lin doesn't even blink, he just watches Dad nod solemnly and give him his blessing and his classic Mustang chassis.
In between are the obligatory race scenes, a terrific chase weaving through Tokyo traffic like it was an obstacle course, and a ridiculous romance tossed in the mix just to up the ante. At least Lin's local color make the idiocy fun to watch.
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