Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
46
(31 sources)
46
(31 sources)
-
83
Baltimore Sun
The opening half-hour may prove to be a disreputable classic of pedal-to-the-metal filmmaking. Read Full Review » -
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Lin takes an established franchise and makes it surprisingly fresh and intriguing. The movie is not exactly "Shogun" when it comes to the subject of an American in Japan (nor, on the other hand, is it "Lost in Translation"). But it's more observant than we expect, and uses its Japanese locations to make the story about something more than fast cars. Read Full Review » -
70
The Hollywood Reporter
It's not much of a movie, but a hell of a ride. So what if the movie dumbs down Japanese culture to a bad yakuza movie and features Japanese characters who can barely speak Japanese? The cars are the stars here. Everything else is lost in translation. Read Full Review » -
70
Variety
Pumping high-performance gas back into the series after a second lap sputter, third entry stays in high gear most of the way with several exhilarating racing sequences, and benefits greatly from the evocative Japanese setting. Read Full Review » -
70
LA 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, and slinky Asian temptresses substituted for poodle-skirted teenyboppers. Read Full Review » -
70
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 Full Review » -
67
Portland Oregonian
As idiot car-crash movies go, "Tokyo Drift" is pretty fun, and certainly a more-than-decent entry in this franchise. Read Full Review » -
60
Wall Street Journal
By all that's unholy, this third edition of the high-emission franchise should have been at least as awful as the second one was. (The first one was good fun.) Yet it's surprisingly entertaining in its deafening fashion, despite the absence of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, the co-stars of parts one and two. Read Full Review » -
50
New York Post
The movie teaches us that you can flip your car down a mountain 15 times and walk away from it with two Tylenol. Read Full Review » -
50
Boston Globe
The F&F series is the 21st century's beach movie, one for some beachless future world where the kids are crowning 25 and seem capable of living off of hair gel and exhaust fumes. Read Full Review » -
50
Los Angeles Times
This third installment of the popular series about fast cars and the posturing boys who love them is 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 Full Review » -
50
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 Full Review » -
50
Premiere
The problems with Tokyo Drift start with its ostensible hero; during the course of this movie, Sean makes so many dumb decisions it's a wonder that anyone wants to be associated with him. Read Full Review » -
50
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50
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 Full Review » -
50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
The racing sequences are the series' meat and potatoes, but in terms of story, Tokyo Drift barely offers a stalk of asparagus. Read Full Review » -
50
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
At least Lin's local color make the idiocy fun to watch. Read Full Review » -
50
The New York Times
As in the previous two installments of the Fast and Furious franchise, this largely consists of macho tantrums, vying for the girl, intense vehicular mayhem and high-octane homoeroticism. Read Full Review » -
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
The director also makes a nod to Japan's rich history of genre filmmaking by casting action legend J. J. Sonny Chiba as a cigar-smoking yakuza. Chiba's presence momentarily classes up a passable youths-ploitation flick into a transcendent piece of movie trash. Read Full Review » -
40
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 Full Review » -
40
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40
Austin Chronicle
Racing junkies would be better off browsing the myriad of online drifting videos where the camera doesn't cut and the people don't speak. Read Full Review » -
38
ReelViews
It's all about eye candy and the quick tease. It's not over fast enough. Read Full Review » -
38
Philadelphia Inquirer
OK, they squeezed one more lap out of this franchise. It's been a fun ride, but it's time to shut things down. If you get my drift. Read Full Review » -
38
USA Today
Has plenty of fast cars and revving engines. But unless you're a fan of that sort of thing, its stultifying plot and wooden acting is likely to make you drift - off to sleep. Read Full Review » -
38
TV Guide
To call the film noisy and brainless isn't even a criticism - it's unadulterated auto-porn, as shallow and shiny as it wants to be. Read Full Review » -
33
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30
Village Voice
Like 2 Fast 2 Furious before it, 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 Full Review » -
25
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25
San Francisco Chronicle
Lucas Black, who looks as much like a high school kid as George Bernard Shaw, speaks in a thick Southern accent that hasn't been heard on any leading man since the second act of "Our American Cousin." Read Full Review » -
25
Miami Herald
Like its predecessors, Tokyo Drift suffers from a terminal lack of levity. Read Full Review »
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