Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw | Film Review

Do me a favor, try to picture yourself in 2001. You are at the movies and surrounded by guys wearing tight t-shirts with an open, button-up shirt over it, some sort of necklace that nearly looks like a choker and has a meaningless totem. Their hair is mused in all sorts of directions, possibly with frosted tips, and they are desperately hoping that mom’s Honda Civic looks cool enough to make them legit. The ladies? Yeah, I didn’t forget them. God bless them; tight crop-top tanks over something their fathers used to catch bait with, hip-hugger jeans, and exposed mid drifts. Those were the days. You just got out of The Fast and the Furious, you’ve got a dumb fun grin on your face, and someone tells you that in 18 years they are still making those movies. Your first response might be something like “HOW?!” Your second response should rightfully be “No one wants to watch 18 years’ worth of half-baked heist movies!”. That person then tells you that they go from heist movies and meld into pseudo-superhero movies. Well, it doesn’t matter anymore because you’ve walked away, laughing at that nerd, hop into your Mitsubishi Eclipse and start living life a quarter-mile at a time. Fast forward to today, and that half baked idea is a reality, sequel-upon-sequel, each outdoing the other which has led us to now a spin-off, Hobbs & Shaw. How does it sit in the Fast & Furious world? Let’s dive in.

Hattie (Vanessa Kirby) is an MI-6 operative tasked with capturing a lethal virus called Snowflake. She and her team encounter a group of Cyber-genetically (yeah, you aren’t reading that wrong) enhanced super-soldiers and lose the battle. However, Hattie exposes herself to the virus and makes her escape. Brixton (Idris Elba) orders his team to clean up the mess and create false reports painting Hattie as a traitor to her country, sending her nowhere to go but into hiding. Enter Hobbs, Dwayne Johnson’s American federal agent expert in tracking down fugitives, and Shaw, Jason Statham’s disgraced MI-6 operative turned mercenary. These two guys don’t like each other, don’t want to work with each other, but ultimately execute every buddy-action movie story bit with glee and abandon.

We could go further into what the story is from that point, the exercise would be time-consuming and pointless. The story isn’t the story, it’s the recipe. Take the ingredients; family, machismo, humor, action, unsurmountable odds, one-liners, cameos, charm that can be eaten with a spoon, and mix it all together. What you get is viewers sitting in a dark theater cheering, gasping, laughing, and sometimes fanning themselves because its all so damn HAWT!

Let’s talk about charm. Dwayne Johnson’s Hobbs is basically like every other character he plays. The big mountain of a man with the soul of a poet. It’s fun to watch an endearing, yet ultimately not heavy lifting Johnson and that’s fine for this film, he does enough heavy lifting elsewhere. Similarly, Jason Statham’s Shaw is just like every other character Statham plays, the refined gentleman with the soul of a bruised sailor on leave. (I don’t even know where I got that). Statham is equally in no danger of extending his abilities here and that is equally FINE! Watching these two powerhouses of action movie joy play off each other was nearly too much of a good thing.

Thankfully, Vanessa Kirby’s work as Hattie was enough of a difference to add a spin on all the charm. She wasn’t the damsel; she was equally capable and nearly steals the show from those two monsters of scenery-chewing in her moments. Using Idris Elba to play Brixton was an interesting choice. He never really invited fear or dread; he was likable, understandable, and maybe only a little menacing. The main players are wonderful to watch, and their supporting characters equally as fun. There may or may not be a few cameos that outshine our stars, but suffice to say that it does not feel like this is the last we will see of them.

The action is what we have come to expect from a Fast & Furious movie. Meaning take whatever we saw in the most recent movie and dial that up to 11. So, this time that means super spies and motorcycles that work like K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider, only mute. McLaren and Jeep spent some money in this movie making sure their latest inductions into the auto world were front and center in very many scenes. And they made you believe that they let a hundred-thousand-dollar car race through the streets of London on its rims, while maintaining perfect driving precision. Oh, and that K.I.T.T. motorcycle? It’s a transformer. Deal with it. Hobbs & Shaw is a feast for the eyes. Most of it unbelievable, but that’s what we are here for; fantasy, fun, and family.

The Fast & Furious franchise is just nuts (I wanted to type ludicrous but my computer kept changing it to Ludacris and then I couldn’t unsee that), each movie out-does it predecessors and we as viewers benefit. Now we have Hobbs & Shaw, an offshoot of the franchise, and it’s no different. Taking the groundwork before it and changing the game while simultaneously building a bigger sandbox.

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is a perfect example of light summer fun, the kind of cinema in 2001 you would have never seen coming because you were too busy living life a quarter-mile at a time.