#FAST AND FURIOUS TOKIO DRIFT SERIES#

(To say nothing of the way he helped steer the series after Paul WalkerвЂ™s untimely death, even after vacating the directorвЂ™s chair following the sixth installment.) His creativity propelled the Fast saga beyond its B-movie trappings into a fully realized universe rivaled only by Marvel and Star Wars in terms of its astonishing popularity. Yet, the most significant contribution Tokyo Drift had on the franchise was Justin Lin. RELATED: Fast & Furious: Spy Racers Rise of SH1FT3R Video Game Announced Oh sure, Tokyo Drift only earned a 37% approval rating on RT and saw dismal box office returns, with many fans citing it as the worst entry of the Fast films,В but the threequel also established everything fans currently love about the franchise today, namely, wild action and stunts that upped the typical street racing shenanigans an all-new locale that set the stage for the globe-trotting exploits of future installments (and helped sell the series to overseas moviegoers) and colorful characters like the snack-loving Han and Twinkie (Bow Wow) whose close ties to Dom (explained in a brilliant post-credit scene) paved the way for future team-ups. I dare say, without Tokyo Drift (and Vin DieselвЂ™s eroding career), itвЂ™s likely the Fast saga ends up as a series of direct-to-DVD vehicles ala Tremors, Hollow Man, and Legally Blond.В (No, seriously. Tokyo Drift stands alongside Mission: Impossible III as a better-than-it-had-any-right-to-be threequel that was strong enough to rebuild a quickly decaying franchise into a billion-dollar property with seemingly no end in sight.

вЂњThis Justin Lin kid has a bright future,вЂќ I wish I would have said at the time. More importantly, Tokyo Drift actually ignited my interest in the Furious franchise, so much so that I saw 2009вЂ™s Fast & Furious at midnight on its opening weekend вЂ¦ and really liked it. Sure, my expectations were about an inch from ground level, but I thought the action/racing scenes were crisp and found the characters, namely Lucas BlackвЂ™s southern-fried Sean Bowell and Sung KungвЂ™s easy-going Han, interesting - or, at least, more interesting than Dom or Brian in the previous installments. Admittedly, I found The Fast and the Furious to be dumb, goofy fun a cheesy summer blockbuster with slick cars, cool action, and hot women built around a somewhat engaging morality tale.Дў Fast 2 Furious, on the other hand,В was a laughable mess - even despite the presence of the lovely Eva Mendes.ДЄs such, my interest in the franchise waned until my brother, now a much older and wiser 20-year-old, convinced me to check out The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the third entry in the franchise and the first helmed by Justin Lin. I only conceded because the previews made the second installment (from John Singleton, no less) look like the greatest action film of all time. At any rate, two years would pass before I actually sat down to watch The Fast and the Furious.

Fast and furious tokio drift