FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS: HOBBS AND SHAW – Review

FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS: HOBBS AND SHAW is no less boneheaded than the previous couple of F&F films, but it’s brimming with eye-popping action sequences and rollicking stunt work from Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham (and their doubles) so if all you require from a night out at the movies is 135 minutes of shiny, noisy fun, then step on up. Hobbs and Shaw were characters from the last couple of F&Fs, but Dom (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker), and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) were always the heart of the franchise. Their absence is missed in this spin-off, as is anything else resembling dimensional human beings, recognizable emotions, or reality.

The plot of FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS: HOBBS AND SHAW is fairly simple. H&S team up in a race against time to stop a deadly virus being unleashed into the world. Vehicles explode, fists fly, stuntmen tumble, glass shatters, and physics is ignored all while sneering kiss-off insult lines between the two leads flow like water. All the shootings, pyrotechnics and chases are staged with knowing panache by director David Leitch who, after entries in the John Wick and Deadpool franchises, is no stranger to this type of big-budget flash and dazzle. The teaming of Johnson and Statham clicks from the outset (again), with both right at home handling action and comedy. Even when it’s not particularly funny, their interplay is engaging, and their lively, raucous personalities keep the proceedings punchy for the overlong running time. There’s a scene on an airplane where the pair trade barbs (mostly about their testicles) that goes on and on with no payoff except for an extended cameo from Kevin Hart as an excitable air marshal. Speaking of pointless cameos, Ryan Reynolds has a couple of scenes as Agent Locke, who, with his high-pitched ad-libbing, is never for a second amusing (likely done as a favor to director Leitch who helmed DEADPOOL 2). Another weak link is Idris Elba’s lead villain Brixton – nicknamed ‘Black Superman’ by the boys. With his cyborg-enhanced strength and a POV Interface that seemed cool 35 years ago in THE TERMINATOR, he’s like every villain from every sci-fi and action movie tossed in a blender (and he recites the year’s worst line: “Genocide, Shmenocide!”). With two musclebound physical actors in the lead(s), perhaps they could have mixed it up with a more cerebral, Blofeld-like villain instead of just another big guy to fight. At the center of the story is Vanessa Kirby as Shaw’s sister Hattie, who’s hosting this virus. She has long eyelashes but makes little impression though other supporting performances are more colorful. Eddie Marsan is a scene stealer as the scientist behind the virus while Helen Mirren has a fun early scene as Shaw’s jailbird mum.

I enjoyed the final 30 minutes of FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS: HOBBS AND SHAW when Hobbs leads the Shaw siblings back to his boyhood home in Samoa where he’s reunited with his mother Sefina (a very funny Lori Tuisano – “Eat something! You’re all skin and bones!”). After figuring out how to disarm the villains’ electronically-locked weapons, Hobbs, along with his brother (Cliff Curtis) and cousins fight Brixton and his army with native wooden weapons. This leads up to the big action climax, a helicopter-vs-hot-rods mountain chase that’s a lot of fun but far less intense or realistic than a similar ending of the last Mission Impossible film. How you feel about FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS: HOBBS AND SHAW is likely a matter of perspective. Fans of the F&F franchise will be happy, though while the actions scenes are up to par with the series predecessors, the in-between material is not.

2 of 4 Stars