Hobbs & Shaw

When the long running Fast and Furious franchise debuted its first film back in 2000, nobody would have predicted that it would have lasted as long as it has until this point. With 8 films under its belt, it ended up being something even more focused with effort starting with the fifth movie, which saw Dwayne Johnson join the cast moving forward. Behind the scenes, diva drama between him and main lead Vin Diesel has brewed up ever since. When the chemistry between Johnson and Jason Statham for the eighth entry proved to be entertaining, it was decided that a spin-off would be created for these two within that universe. This brings us to Fast and Furious presents: Hobbs & Shaw, which was directed by David Leith (best known is hilarious that the official title is sort of set-up like that with the series longevity . As mentioned before in my F8 of the Furious review, I consider the series as action movie junk food and I was expecting that much crazy fun with this one. I went into the theater ready for some dumb fun and left it a little bit underwhelmed.

What's it about? The story follows our bickering lead heroes as they go through a standard “make sure the villain doesn’t get a deadly virus weapons for evil purposes”. It’s about as cliched and predictable as you would expect for something that's following its formulaic premise. It knows what it sets out to do and doesn't take itself that seriously with how strong our brawny heroes are. It follows some aspect of the regular Fast and Furious cliches such as how strong the protagonists plot armor is, wild action that ignores physics, occasional shots of women in tight outfits at events, and manly men trying to overcome each other with masculine feats of ridiculousness. Thankfully it does remember to have fun in its abundance of stronger moments.

However, there are problems with it that hold it back from the greatness of the franchise' better outings (basically everything from 5 and onwards). The pacing of events is noticeably sluggish in moving from plot point to action set piece. It's a hard to ignore around the third act where it moves from a giant sequence in a factory area to Samoa as it feels like it's holding its audience hostage as it drags the runtime. It's something that should have been fixed with the script, along with the dialogue.

How crazy is it? Compared to the rest of the franchise, this spin-off is in the top 3 in regards to how over the top ridiculous it is. There are many sequences where laws of normality are still taking a nap for these movies since 2000 that are present here. The closest it gets to capturing that tone and familiar feel of the main Fast and Furious movies would be the car chase in London and the ordeal in Samoa. There's something else that needs to be mentioned because I can't tell if it was unintentional or not when they filmed it. My favorite WTF thing that stood out to me occurs in the climax which has a timer involved. They start it at night where the antagonist army show up when suddenly the scene cuts to bright morning with the battle going on and the timer claims almost 10 minutes have passed by. Either Samoa runs differently in time or their reality exists in such a peculiar flow of time with the weather (I'm surprised nobody behind the scenes seem to notice this detail).

How are Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham? As for our leading actors, they are most definitely strong enough to not only make this adventure entertaining but manage to elevate the dialog given to them. The chemistry between them is fun and watchable, despite the overuse of repetitive smack talk to each other. It should be noted that this screenplay has chunks dedicated to idolizing Johnson to the point where it feels like the writers were working on the script in one hand while looking at fan fiction of the actor in the other. In regards to Idris Elba as the antagonist, it's a mixed due to him being underutilized in his screen time but thankfully he manages to do his best to elevate the role. Vanessa Kirby is unmemorable with her limited supportive role that doesn't give her to do outside of following the modern cliche of "small thin agent who holds her own against larger foes" (plus lack of chemistry with Johnson when trying to push a romance).

Overall Consensus: Hobbs & Shaw is an entertaining but forgettable film that's bolstered by its strong lead actors and over the top sequences, despite suffering from pacing and screenplay issues. ⭑⭑⭑1/4💻 Runtime: 2 hours 15 minutes PG-13

Reasons to watch it: You are a fan of the aforementioned actors. You enjoy the Fast and Furious film series. You enjoy over the top dumb action movies. You don't mind movies that don't take themselves seriously.

Reasons to avoid it: You aren't a fan of the aforementioned actors. You dislike the Fast and Furious film series. You hate over the top dumb action movies that feel like they are longer than they actually are.