Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)
Hobbs & Shaw is a spinoff to the Fast & Furious series, putting together two of the more popular characters in the later stages of the series, mostly playing for laughs off of their competitive banter and building-floor destroying scuffles. This effort attempts to greatly expand their presence by giving the two characters their own backstory, as well as a big mission for them to collaborate on, albeit extremely reluctantly. Although the series had been dabbling with following a certain superhero superteam formula, Hobbs & Shaw is the first of the series to break out of the action-thriller genre to openly embrace science fiction elements into its plot, which might make or break the level of disbelief in some viewers who prefer their ludicrous action films to at least adhere to the semblance of rules. Some will see this as “jumping the shark”, but for those willing to take whatever comes and wherever things go, it will likely be seen as a humorous, over-the-top extravaganza that should deliver the goods for those who like the series and these actors.
The film starts with someone we don’t know, Hattie (played by Vanessa Kirby), an MI6 agent on a mission to keep a deadly virus named Snowflake, which can liquefy the internal organs of humans who contract it, from getting into the hands of a faction of mercenaries under the employ of an evil tech-based organization called Eteon, led by Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), a hi-tech assassin with technology-augmented senses that make him a swiss-army knife of deadly skills, something seen by the company as the future of a humanity soon to die off. In a desperation move, Hattie injects the virus into her own body, giving her only 3 days to get it back out before it actually does what it’s supposed to do, and instantly making her the most sought-after fugitive in the world by bad guys and good guys alike. Hired to find Hattie before Lore finds her first is the titular bickering team of Los Angeles-based single father and retired DSS agent Luke Hobbs and ex-special ops mercenary Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), the latter of whom is soon revealed to be the estranged older sibling of Hattie. But to save Hattie, they also need to secure the services of a genius scientist, who is perhaps the only one with the technology necessary to extract the virus back out of Hattie, making him a target of Eteon’s forces as well.
Hobbs & Shaw is directed by David Leitch, who is perhaps most known for taking over the reins of the Deadpool franchise with Deadpool 2, but who also co-directed the original John Wick and received positive notes for his work helming Atomic Blonde. Like that film, Hobbs & Shaw is directed and edited with lots of music video-style appeal, and plenty of insult-laden humor, but in such a way that feels more forced than natural a good deal of the time, and with more emphasis on CG action than the practical stunt work Leitch had primarily been known for in earlier efforts. The laughs are there for those who are game, and yet some of the dialogue feels wittier on the page than it does coming out of the mouths of the characters, who do the best they can to spout off one-liners, even if they come off with the rat-a-tat style of a TV sitcom.
Leitch and his screenwriters, Chris Morgan (who co-wrote every F&F film since Tokyo Drift) and Drew Pearce (co-writer of Iron Man 3), know enough to keep the action and plot constantly changing to try to avoid prolonged lulls, as the action trots around the globe to places like London, Russia, and Samoa (the most inspired of the choices). Tie-ins to the main franchise are relegated to one big and zany action sequence involving cars tethered to a helicopter, and a climax that reasserts the theme of nearly every F&F movie: it’s all about family. Still, given how the characters have changed without much explanation, especially including the fact that Shaw was actually a big/bad nemesis of all that is decent himself, it’s one of those cases where, if you’ve come this far, you’ve given up any and all pretenses that the makers of the films actually care about their storylines in favor of just entertaining the masses.
Character touches include Hobbs’ loving relationship with his precocious daughter, Shaw’s protective older brother routine (which is especially called into play when he thinks Hobbs might be making a romantic play for his sis), and lots and lots of dissing among the two leads, as well as to other agents, showing that, while there may be honor among thieves, there’s no such expectation among the world’s law enforcement agents. Idris Elba only offers his badass screen presence to counterbalance the two dynamic main actors, as his role is neither interesting nor developed as anything more than a Terminator-type (he refers to himself as “black Superman”) to give the boys something to feel good about potentially taking down. In this regard, the film also seems to be setting up Eteon as a potential evil organization for future entries, run by some sort of artificial intelligence entity that uncannily resembles Master Computer from 1982’s Tron.
Hobbs & Shaw is cartoonish, noisy, and utterly preposterous, but in a way that fans already expect going into it. If all you’re looking for is explosive action, a good-looking cast, and a few decent chuckles, it will probably fit the bill. Anyone looking for more than that will likely leave the theater quite fast and more than a bit furious.
- Stay tuned through the credits for 4 mid-credits scenes and an additional one after the credits.
Qwipster’s rating: B
MPAA Rated: PG-13 for prolonged sequences of action and violence, suggestive material and some strong language
Running Time: 135 min.
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Ryan Reynolds, Eddie Marsan, Eliana Sua, Kevin Hart, Cliff Curtis, Eiza Gonzalez, Lori Pelenese Tuisano
Small roles and cameos: Helen Mirren, David Leitch
Director: David Leitch
Screenplay: Chris Morgan, Drew Pearce