I loved and hated this movie, in much the same way I loved and hated the first one.

It’s got amazing racing scenes, a pretty bad plot and some hoooorrrible dialogue. But seeing the racing on the big screen, it was absolutely worth it. As Roger Ebert wrote in his review:

“The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” is the third of the F&F movies; it delivers all the races and crashes you could possibly desire, and a little more.

There are some great funny scenes, some jaw-dropping driving scenes, and when it’s not dragging through the plot, it’s worth it.

The best part was that it was a return to using actual cars for much of the movie. CGI’s got better and better, but there’s nothing like the weight and impact of actual things: The Train gives me chills because that’s a real train getting strafed by a real plane, or derailing.

There’s still something plastic and unreal in even the best work, like the new Star Wars movies, that prevents the suspension of disbelief and really buying into the world (unless it’s totally animated, and then you either can believe in the form or not). You can’t refuse to believe that a train’s crashing off the rails if John Frankenheimer crashes a real train and films it.