Director Justin Lin has returned to the Fast and Furious series with F9 after leaving it safe and sound with the sixth installment. Lin is best known for turning the street racing series into a high-octane globe-trotting adventure, as he has been at the helm of five of the action movies.
RELATED: Every Fast & The Furious Movie, Ranked By Letterboxd
But Fast and Furious isn’t all the filmmaker is known for, as Lin has got an equal amount of indie darlings and blockbuster movies under his belt. The director was first noticed in the industry for his beloved low-budget crime drama Better Luck Tomorrow, and he has gone on to direct one of the most exciting Star Trek movies.
F9 (2021) – 5.2
![Dom and Jakob have a heated argument in F9](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/F9-Dom-and-Jakob-Cropped-2.jpg)
The Fast and Furious series has gotten more over-the-top with each consecutive movie, as the stunts are increasingly outrageous and the set pieces have gone from trucks to planes. But with F9, it was a case of blowing up the balloon so much that it popped. Audiences felt that the new entry in the series was too unbelievable, which is saying a lot for the Fast franchise.
On top of that, though the fan-favorite character Han returned, there was no reasonable or satisfying explanation for how he survived his car crash. However, there’s still a lot about F9 that fans loved, including Rome and Tej’s love/hate relationship and Ramsey’s increased screentime.
Annapolis (2006) – 5.9
Annapolis follows a man’s attempt to become a member of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, while, at the same time, rising through the ranks of the Academy’s amateur boxing league. The movie is the first of two films directed by Justin Lin in 2009, (which is a work ethic and a rate at which few other filmmakers can compete with).
RELATED: 10 Fast & Furious Characters That Deserve Their Own Spin-Off Movie
However, the quality isn’t quite on the scale of Lin’s other movies in this era, and it was criticized for its cliches and stale acting. The movie does feature another Fast and Furious alum, Tyrese Gibson, who gives a rare dramatic performance, and it’s actually one of the best parts of the movie.
Finishing The Game (2007) – 6.0
It’s hard to stick the landing with mockumentaries, as it’s such a niche genre full of films that are often about even more niche topics, and Finishing the Game is no different. The movie is about Bruce Lee’s final film, Game of Death, as it was unfinished at the time of his death, and the mockumentary satirizes the production of the movie.
Finishing the Game is an interesting telling of an untold story, but for the most part, it’s full of cliched comedy timing and sight gags. It also addresses the racism the Asian community faces in Hollywood and the lack of opportunities available, which is something that Lin has been vocal about throughout his whole career.
The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) – 6.0
Justin Lin took the reigns on the Fast and Furious series in 2006, and he is to thank for the high-octane action franchise that it has become. But before the series started to take its action shape with Fast & Furious, Lin played into the franchise’s playful street-racing origins with The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
The movie is almost solely based on street racing, and it’s full of souped-up import cars whizzing around Tokyo. It’s visually stunning, but audiences believed that it was generally all style and no substance. However, Tokyo Drift is full of great scenes, and it introduced some of the best characters of the series, including Han, who returned in F9.
Fast & Furious (2009) – 6.6
Fast & Furious is the first movie that serialized the series, as it continued Brian and Dom’s saga. It should have been better considering that it reunited Brian and Dom for the first time since the original movie, but the story was criticized for being too convoluted. Still, many fans consider it the best movie in the franchise since the original in 2001.
The movie increased the stakes and built on the emotional tension that the previous installments had lacked in the past two entries, reminding audiences of how much chemistry Paul Walker and Vin Diesel have together. With Fast & Furious, the series was finally given the “Coppola approach” that Diesel wanted with 2 Fast 2 Furious.
Star Trek Beyond (2016) – 7.0
With the direction that the reboot series of Star Trek was going in, Justin Lin was the perfect choice to replace J.J. Abrams, who was busy directing Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
RELATED: 10 Plot Holes From The Fast And Furious Movies That Make No Sense Whatsoever
Abrams’ Star Trek movies were more action than sci-fi, and after turning Fast and Furious into a Mission: Impossible-esq action series, the director delved even deeper into giant set pieces with Star Trek Beyond. The movie isn’t as highly regarded as its two predecessors, as the blockbuster action is considered incoherent and too frenetic. But it’s a solid entry into the series, as it still balances the humor and adventure just as Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness.
Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) – 7.0
In 2002, Justin Lin directed a much more compelling movie about overachievers who turn to a life of crime. Better Luck Tomorrow is the movie that put Justin Lin on the map. It’s an expertly crafted crime drama, and it was even awarded a perfect score from non-other than Roger Ebert.
The movie is why Universal hired Lin for Tokyo Drift, and it makes sense, as the street racing movie follows bored teenagers committing petty crimes and finding comfort in material excess, just like Better Luck Tomorrow. And technically, Better Luck Tomorrow is part of the Fast and Furious universe, as the character of Han is a main character in the 2002 movie.
Fast & Furious 6 (2013) – 7.0
Fast & Furious 6 upped the ante when it came to huge set pieces in the blockbuster franchise. That almost seemed like an impossible feat, as the fifth movie saw Dom’s crew jump out of a moving train and destroy the whole of Rio. However, even though some Redditors think Fast & Furious 6 is forgettable, the movie couldn’t be more thrilling, as the final act sees the crew literally blow up a plane.
At this point in the series, Fast and Furious was in the fifth gear of world-building, and one of the best examples of that is Owen Shaw. The movie introduced a villain that had a personality, as actor Luke Evans brought a sense of gravitas to Shaw, which hadn’t been seen in a Fast movie since Carter Verone in 2 Fast 2 Furious.
Fast Five (2011) – 7.3
Fast Five changed the series in a ton of ways. The movie became not only the most financially successful movie in the series at the time, but it also became the most beloved film of the franchise still to this day. That was all down to the direction and casting decisions of Justin Lin. With Lin at the helm, he turned the series into an Ocean’s Eleven-type heist franchise.
Every fan-favorite character from each of the previous movies returned, such as Tej and Rome from 2 Fast, Han from Tokyo Drift, and Mia from the original. It was like a greatest hits movie for the Fast series. But the best improvement of all was the introduction of Luke Hobbs, who injected equal amounts of testosterone and humor in the series, the latter of which was much needed after the solemn fourth movie.
NEXT: The Fast & The Furious 10 Actors You Forgot Were In The Hit Franchise