Written by: Susan Granger
www.susangranger.com

This is the third installment in a flashy, super-charged, testosterone-fueled franchise that makes Disney's "Cars" look like a prize-winning internal-combustion engine thesis.

But I did learn something: ‘drift racing' consists of gunning the motor and propelling a souped-up hot rod through hairpin turns and switchbacks - sideways - recklessly surfing the pavement. Heavy metal music permeates the background so that one can, presumably, ignore the stench of burning rubber.

After too many skirmishes with the law at home, a cocky American speed-demon, Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) is sent to live with his grumpy, estranged father (Brian Goodman), a stubborn Navy officer stationed in Tokyo. He's soon befriended by a wisecracking American hustler, Twinkie (Bow Wow) who introduces him to underground drift racing. As a ‘gaijin' (outsider), Sean unwittingly takes on a local hotshot, D.K. (Brian Tee), who has an Aussie girl-friend with a classy chassis, Neela (Nathalie Kelley), and whose uncle Kamata (Sonny Chiba) is the boss of Yakuza, the Japanese crime syndicate. When he loses, Sean is forced to work off the debt with Han (Sung Kang), who reveals the reality of ‘drifting.' All this leads up to a climactic race.

Screenwriter Chris Morgan is better at driving better than at dialogue, and director Justin Lin's "Better Luck Tomorrow" was more impressive. Slammed into stardom by G-forces, Lucas Black ("Friday Night Lights," "Jarhead") struggles to mimic the misogynistic attitude of Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibson. Primary credit goes to the drivers, U.S. Formula Drift Champion Rhys Millen and Tanner Foust, and second-unit director/stunt coordinator Terry Leonard.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" is an adrenaline-propelled 3. It's slick and shiny, but it's a junker. Avoid this noisy, shallow pit stop.