‘Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw’ Supercharged! (Movie Review)
We’ve been covering the Fast & Furious films on the site ever since part six with my reviews of the eighth HERE, seventh HERE and finally that sixth one of Aaron’s HERE. Lucky for me the franchise shows no signs of slowing down with a ninth one on its way next year, but I digress. Today it’s time to talk about a spin-off of The Fast and the Furious franchise. That’s right! You heard me correct. Fans loved the chemistry between Jason Statham (as Deckard Shaw) and Dwayne Johnson (as Luke Hobbs) in the seventh and eighth installments so much that they are now getting their cake and eating it too. Ladies and gentlemen I present to you the spin-off appropriately titled Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (we’ll roll with the latter half of that name throughout the rest of this review). There’s no mistake about it. When it comes to a title like that you know who the movie revolves around. But wait! There’s so much more to talk about. Buckle up and follow me down below. Vroom! Vroom!
We already covered up above where these two beloved characters of the franchise are from so now I want to focus on the 411 of the production and the other big box office names you’ll find attached to this action vehicle. First off, this film is directed by Deadpool 2’s David Leitch from a screenplay written by Chris Morgan and Drew Pearce (and it’s lot more fun than Deadpool 2). Now here’s the part I’m most excited about…the rest of the cast. Statham and Johnson are two huge personas to combat with, but Idris Elba sure gives them a run for their money here. But that’s not all. Oh no! We also have Vanessa Kirby from the last Mission: Impossible flick and the household name of Helen Mirren to contend with. If that wasn’t enough, one of my recent favorites is also starring in this feature. That would be Baby Driver’s Eiza González. Oh yeah Fear the Walking Dead‘s Cliff Curtis is also in this one too!
Timeline-wise Hobbs & Shaw picks up right where the eighth installment, The Fate of the Furious, left off. If you remember the pair, two films ago Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw hated each other. However, they were forced to set aside their differences and work together towards a common goal in the last outing. I would say much of the same is still very true in this one. Deep down they still dislike each other, but they are forced to work together again to stop a new enemy in town. Who is that you ask? Well it’s none other than a cyber-genetically enhanced international terrorist (I know that’s a mouthful) played by Idris Elba. Side note…it does not appear like he’s going to be the next James Bond. I’m just saying. However, he definitely doesn’t lose any cool points here. Elba is dressed to kill and looks like a million bucks. It also doesn’t hurt that I love him as a villain here too.
So it gets worse for our motley pair of heroes. This so called cyber-genetically enhanced international terrorist is threatening the human race with trying to obtain a deadly virus. Even though he’s only one “enhanced” man the duo of Hobbs and Shaw is apparently not enough to stop the mad man and his entourage. Therefore, they form their own team to save the human race and as you can clearly see in the trailer that also involves some travel to Hobbs’ homeland of Samoa. I know what you’re thinking. This doesn’t sound like a Fast & Furious film at all. Rest assured you’re not the only one with that mindset. However, it does have the ingredients of one wild, insane, over-the-top action film with a sci-fi Marvel-like twist. In other words it sounds kind of intriguing compared to other Fast & Furious entires if I do say so myself, don’t you agree? Of course you do!
Hobbs & Shaw delivered on all the action, thrills and insane moments the rest of the franchise films do, but it did so in very unusual ways. For starters it had kind of a Mission:Impossible vibe to it complete with an MI6 storyline and all. On top of all that it also had a super fun, sci-fi, supernatural twist to it all akin to Marvel’s Doctor Octopus wanting to take over the world kind of vibe. Needless to say there’s a lot of futuristic kind of tech (guns, bikes and cybernetic parts) throughout this. I’m also not a big motorcycle person, but even I can’t help feeling giddy about Idris’ ride in this. Wow! Of course there’s also all the humor and big, loud, destructive moments you’d expect based upon the previous entries. However, there’s something even more over the top in this entry. It’s all about the surprise cameos! There’s a couple of big ones and they are quite impactful in both the laugh department as well as story (as long as you’re not annoyed by the lengths at times). On the flip side Eiza’s character felt very much like Halle Berry’s did in John Wick 3, very underutilized. Beggars can’t be choosers though! Moving on…
With the good though usually involves some bad. If not, I wouldn’t have anything else to write here and I really want 6 paragraphs. It’s my job here to nitpick so let’s do that just a tad. As much as I love the chemistry between Johnson and Statham it does overstay its welcome from time-to-time with familiar banter and some really bad dialogue. However, I love them together so much I’m able to forgive some of these repeatable moments (and adding Vanessa Kirby to the team definitely entices things). On top of that though if you roll your eyes at some of the over-the-top, unbelievable action sequences in the previous Fast & Furious films, then I’m sorry because things don’t get better for you here. It’s quite ridiculous, but answer me this. You wouldn’t be reading about this movie if that truly bothered you that much, right? You want to be thrilled. You want to be entertained. You want larger than life action. You want fun and insulting banter. And you’re definitely in the right place here with Hobbs & Shaw. Just don’t make the same mistake I made either. Stay through the entire credits. Trust me! Buckle up and enjoy the ride.
Brian White
Owner/Writer/Reviewer/Editor, Dreamer, Producer, Agent of Love, Film Lover, Writer of Screenplays and a Devoted Apostle to all things Ford Mustangs (the real ones with V8's!). Some of my favorite films include FIGHT CLUB, MOULIN ROUGE, THE DARK KNIGHT, STAR WARS alongside television shows such as SEINFELD, 24, SANFORD & SON and even the often loathed in the geek community BIG BANG THEORY. Outside of my three lives I live I also enjoy spending time with my girlfriend and our three girls (of the furry kind).
