4 12 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, June 19, 2006 Hot rides can't best tepid plot By Christina Choi .Daily Arts Writer Stock cars are for pansies. As "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" demon- strates, only the The Fast and most radically the Furious: transformed and Tok Drift -tricked-out vehicles yo are worthy of being At the Showcase driven. The result- and Quality 16 ing rides are utter- Universal ly seductive and promise a gripping storyline to follow. Yet despite a brand-new cast and exotic locale, the film's glamorous rides are dampened by a predictable storyline. Sean (Lucas Black, "Jarhead") plays the army-brat version of Paul Walker ("The Fast and the Furious") with a Southern background that's ever pres- ent in his grits-infused twang. He's a Nos-loving teenager who's above caring about school. This could be because numerous close-ups expose Black's obvious age lines, but that's OK considering his initial love inter- est, Cindy (Nikki Griffin, TV's "The O.C."), is actually pushing 30. Clearly, immortality is only a teenage part and cabbage diet away in Hollywood. After a street race gone awry in the States, Sean is shipped off to Tokyo to live with his estranged military father, Cult favorite hits DVD "There's no way you're getting your keys back until I get some tongue." Major Boswell (Brian Goodman, "Annapolis"). Boswell is the quint- essential well-intentioned dad who doesn't mind saving Sean from gun- point just as long as he never makes the same mistakes he did. Sean is soon smitten by Neela (newcomer Nathalie Kelley), an inevitably beautiful Australian who's involved in the intoxicating world of drift racing. A refreshing departure from classic street racing, drift racing involves break tight turns performed at excessive speeds. The current drift king in Tokyo, appropriately dubbed D.K. (Brian Tee, "Fun with Dick and Jane"), is dating Neela, creating an effortless setting for heated brawls and gut-wrenching heartache. The film prides itself on utilizing cars that few humans ever glimpse, let alone drive in their lifetimes. By dangling this eye candy in front of those who still sur- vive on weekly allowances, the allure of this reckless lifestyle is skillfully pitched to the right audience. And albeit their obvious detractions from reality, scenes consisting of hardcore driving, sharp lighting and bass-loaded music consti- tute the best moments of the film. But the gaps between these races are sloppily bridged by mediocre characters and dialogue. Even Hans (Sung Kang, "The Motel"), Sean's race-savvy mentor, cannot escape cli- ches when he reminds his proteg6 that there's more to life than racing. To distract from these flaws, the film abounds with scantily clad Asian women who are all eager to be seduced by the right set of wheels. Han proves his status to one such vixen by tight- ly drifting in circles around her car. With this precedent, it's only fitting that the most romantic scene in the film consists of watching cars silently tackle turns in the moonlight. Amid this backdrop of purring engines, it's clear that true love is only measurable by the quality of a man's ride. By Jeffrey Bloomer Managing Editor DVD RE When life is this good, there's no turn- ing back. Reductively touted as the male spin-off of the late "Sex and the City," HBO's L.A.-set Entourage: movie-star-on- The Complete the-rocks comedy Second series "Entourage" Season hit an uncommon stride in its second HBO season, rallying a cult audience and effectively transform- ing itself into the pop-culture manifesto of modern Hollywood. Though bearing the same cinematic aesthetic and four-friend stronghold of its counterpart, "Entourage" changes coasts and a lot more: Relationships take a backseat (though they're certainly here) to the show's mnore compelling interest in Hollywood as a business, a cultural epi- center and a way of life. The show's frank writers and producers not only tap into the ferocious beating heart of the indus- try but remain in acute conversation with its cultural backbone, channeling both its outer and inner workings through a clan of four friends from Brooklyn, one of whom made it big. "Entourage" carved new and lasting life for itself in its second season, with ingenious preemptive strikes on the part of the producers who have a preternatural feel for the show's weaknesses. Turtle is made into more than the free-wheeling tag-along ofyesteryearand becomes ahip- hop producer; Ari "Let's-hug-it-out-bitch" Gold's airtight career begins to slip; and Vince, not E, falls hard for a girl. Com- ing off of an already strong first season held back by its incidental, obstacle-of- the-week structure, the producers develop the series' first bona fide storylines that have carried on into the new third season, which debuted last Sunday. Said to be modeled from sketches of Mark Wahlberg's career circathe TumBur- ton remake of "Planet of the Apes" (Wahl- berg serves as an exec producer),the second season follows Vince (Adrian Griener), E (Kevin Connolly), Drama (Kevin Dillon) and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara)through the rocky road leading up to the production of James Cameron's "Aquaman" and Vince's brief re-fling with co-star Mandy Moore (who plays a fresh-faced caricature of herself in four episodes). Ari's firing fromthe agency also takes center stage, which leads him to bond with Lloyd, his gay Chinese-Ameri- can assistant who the writers steadfastly refuse to stereotype. ("If I was 25 and liked cock, we might actually have something," Ari tells him. How sweet) Howtheproducerscontinuetolandsuch a steady line of guest stars is a puzzlement they would do well to keep to themselves (the second season saw Cameron, Bono and, inevitably, Hugh Hefner), but what- ever they're playing at, they are in obvious control of the medium,steadily sending the show into the ranks of the network's very best television. That the DVD release has such scant features (Wahlberg interviews the cast - hold me back) is regrettable but beside the point, because with 14 episodes on three discs, there's no real room for complaint.Itsexposure alreadythroughthe roof, the show may become the smooth- edged poster child for 'OOs pop culture, a rare industry introspection of the most entertaining order. As with Vince, there's no question: This one is on the rise. Show: **** Special Features: ** a a a