All Critics (148)
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Top Critics (33)
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Fresh (79)
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Rotten (70)
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DVD (41)
A gritty and gratifying cheap thrill, Rob Cohen's high-octane hot-car meller is a true rarity these days, a really good exploitationer, the sort of thing that would rule at drive-ins if they still existed.
While few of the paper-thin characters register long enough to make much of an impression, Diesel carries the movie with his unsettling mix of Zen-like tranquillity and barely controlled rage.
Works hard to be exciting, but the movie scarcely lives up to its title.
Even those who've never heard of 'rice rockets' (Japanese imports souped up with computerized hydraulics and customized engines) might be charmed by the film's blend of kineticism, car-culture rituals, and hilariously flat-footed dialogue.
May not have much of a brain, but it's definitely got a pulse.
Diesel, Brewster and Rodriguez have undeniable charisma, while Walker is serviceable in his role.
This is a bad, bad movie. Skip it.
Sure it's a guilty pleasure watching stunt drivers put flashy state-of-the-art streetcars through impossibly daring maneuvers, but it's a happy indulgence nonetheless.
... when characters are not racing at breakneck speed, the movie as a whole ceases to move.
It's all testosterone and swagger, and tries so hard to be cool that it's just the opposite.
Not Point Break so much as Point Less.
An exciting second-tier action flick.
This is probably the most fun to be had at the multiplex so far this year.
From first frame to last, this is an unabashedly B-Picture, elevated by A-level stunts but dragged down to C-level characterizations.
Returning the series to solid ground after 2 Fast 2 Furious leaned too heavily on cartoonish CGI effects, Tokyo Drift relies on old-fashioned stunt work that gives its best sequences a sense of brute physicality.
...ultimately entertaining enough to warrant a mild recommendation...
It doesn't matter that we know where it's going, what counts is that Cohen keeps his pedal to the floor and that his actors gun their lines with absolute conviction. Loud cars, fast music: this movie knows exactly what it's about.
At first it's an exhilarating ride with original action scenes that quickly become routine when they are thrown at the audience over and over.
A film that stays true to what it tries to be.
Visually striking thriller.
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