Two exiled men on a rooftop in Tokyo:
American: "So how'd you end up over here anyway?"
North Korean: "You know those old westerns, where the cowboys make a run for the border? This is my Mexico."

Justin Lin's first F&F film is the black sheep of the franchise, but also the origin of its near-utopian multiculturalism. The way he depicts Japan is not too far removed from Coppola's approach in LOST IN TRANSLATION - shooting on location renders Tokyo as a fully realized entity while our protagonist, the stranger in a strange land, is a blank. Sean connects most strongly with fellow outsiders (or "gaijin," to use the Japanese term employed here as the gravest of insults) who have…

I was truly surprised how much I enjoyed this film. It's nowhere near as shitty as the first two films in the franchise, and it isn't as stupid-but-fun as the 4th and 5th entries. It's just a genuinely good film with a stock storyline that's presented well. It especially helps that the main characters in this aren't stupid criminals portrayed by dull actors. (Save for the one female character with more than 5 lines. But, then again, she wasn't given much to work with.)

Lucas Black and Sung Kang are especially good here. They're both better actors than Paul Walker and Vin Diesel and their relationship feels grounded and believable. I hope Furious 6 isn't the last appearance for Sung…

Tokyo Drift is most certainly a mix bag. On one big bright side, the racing and car chase scenes are arugably some of the best of the series, but on one big negative side, the acting and dialogue is terrible, even for a Fast and Furious movie. Lucas Black is so awful in this, he's just so wooden, emotionless, and it's hard to take him seriously with an awful southern accent he tries to pull off. His awful performance as the main protagonist, kind of honestly makes Paul Walker's performances in the first two movies look worthy of an oscar nomination. And it doesn't help him that his character isn't nearly as interesting or likeable as a character as Brian…

As bad as this is, I still think this one is better than the first two. Replacing the emotionless Paul Walker with an emotionless Lucas Black this film KNOWS it's a stupid movie and it takes advantage with ridiculous characters, ridiculous choices of music and outright stereotyping. Brian Tee plays the Yakuza wannabe and "Drift King" DK whilst the popular character Han from the later films in the franchise is played by Sung Kang.

The film is essentially just a concoction of cars, half naked women, the looming danger of Yakuza, school bullies and Bow Wow selling stuff. There's even a cameo from a big bald guy that fans of the franchise will certainly enjoy. Actually, why is this one…

Tokyo Drift is a departure from the rest of the series in that it doesn't feature any of the previous cast. I kind of see it as the Temple of Doom of the Fast and Furious series given that its story is set out of sequence. The events seen in the film technically take place after the events of fourth and fifth movies, which make Tokyo Drift even more of a departure from the rest of series. This is a third time watch for me, and I would say that it is my favorite of the F&F series.

The second half of the film is bit stale I admit, but the first half of the movie is really solid. The…

This interlude for the now powerhouse series is reasonably fun to watch. And it gets a lot of mileage out of its culture shock, fish-out-of-water premise.

But, in all fairness, this is a kid's film. It really is. While you could say the other film's in the series have the feeling of adolescents playing at being grown ups, this film is absolutely a teen movie through and through.

For some, that quality might give it a certain kick, but there really isn't vry much going on. It's basically a riff on The Karate Kid II, with race cars instead of flying kicks; and the character of Han serving as a kind of pretty boy version of Mr. Miyagi. In fact,…

I was truly surprised how much I enjoyed this film. It's nowhere near as shitty as the first two films in the franchise, and it isn't as stupid-but-fun as the 4th and 5th entries. It's just a genuinely good film with a stock storyline that's presented well. It especially helps that the main characters in this aren't stupid criminals portrayed by dull actors. (Save for the one female character with more than 5 lines. But, then again, she wasn't given much to work with.)

Lucas Black and Sung Kang are especially good here. They're both better actors than Paul Walker and Vin Diesel and their relationship feels grounded and believable. I hope Furious 6 isn't the last appearance for Sung…