Hobbs & Shaw is the first official spin-off of the Fast & Furious franchise, which is centered around Dwayne Johnson’s DSS Agent Hobbs and Jason Statham’s rogue mercenary Deckard Shaw and the chemistry they displayed in their scenes during 2017’s The Fate of the Furious. They are joined by Vanessa Kirby as Deckard’s sister MI6 Agent Hattie Shaw, Eiza Gonzalez as the mysterious gangster Madame M, and Idris Elba as the cybernetically enhanced terrorist Brixton. Helen Mirren reprises her role as criminal matriarch Queenie Shaw from The Fate of the Furious. Director David Leitch (John Wick, Deadpool 2) joins the franchise with a script from Fast & Furious mastermind Chris Morgan and Drew Pearce (Hotel Artemis).
The titular duo must join forces once Agent Hattie Shaw finds herself in the crosshairs of Brixton after injecting herself with a designer super-virus to keep it out of his hands. Framed for the murder of her MI6 squadron, Shaw is tracked down by Hobbs and her brother Deckard, facing off against Brixton and the evil megacorporation he works for, Eteon. With 72 hours until the virus releases into Hattie’s bloodstream and goes airborne, Hobbs and Shaw have to find a way to work together or else.
The best thing Hobbs & Shaw have going for it are The Rock and Statham, two of the most magnetic and energetic leads you can find. Highlighting the differences (and similarities) between the characters early on, the film wastes very little time in teaming them up. Cut from the same cloth as other buddy actioners like Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour and its spiritual predecessor Tango & Cash, the plot for Hobbs & Shaw is a flimsy excuse to put our anti-heroes through as many set-pieces and shenanigans as possible. And your mileage may vary, but if you’re okay with that, you’ll have a great time.
Idris Elba is regrettably wasted as Brixton, his screen presence reduced to a generic menace proselytizing the transhumanist philosophy of Eteon, whose other members remain faceless and nameless. His personal vendetta against Deckard Shaw is that of happenstance instead of being the main proponent of hunting down the duo. The result is akin to making Slim Jims out of a filet mignon, and both Elba and the audience deserve more than this. Vanessa Kirby fares better as Hattie Shaw, a trained hand-to-hand fighter that refuses to be a mere damsel in distress. The script posits her as a potential love interest to Hobbs, but for two people as appealing as Kirby and Johnson, there are a low level of sparks.
David Leitch’s bona fide resume speaks for itself, coming up through the trenches of stunt-work and second unit directing. As such, both he and producer Dwayne Johnson can call in quite a few superstar cameo favors, but the bar that his work with 87Eleven Action Design set in 2014’s John Wick casts a shadow over his entire filmography. Unable to match the brutal surprise of that stuntwork, either due to the PG-13 rating of Hobbs & Shaw or because there are only so many ways to keep a nine-film franchise fresh, the fight choreography here is generic (save for the intro scene and an inventive hallway sequence) and the stars end up doing the heavy lifting, slathering on their charms to the point of nearly wearing out their welcome by the third act set in Samoa.
Statham goes toe-to-toe with Johnson in the humor and fighting, setting up what may go down as the biggest Heel Face Turn of all time as we’re supposed to forget that Shaw spent one and a half Fast & Furious movies terrorizing the Toretto crew. The audience can be forgiven for forgetting such details; the F&F films are confectionery by design and not meant to last in the collective memory of filmgoers. Alas, the ingredients are all here for the makings of an action classic.
Perhaps the biggest competitor to the Fast & Furious franchise artistically is the Mission: Impossible series. The insistence on practical stunts from star Tom Cruise and his frequent collaborator Chris McQuarrie give that series a certain tactility that’s been missing in the Furious saga ever since Fast Five. Two scenes come to mind from Hobbs & Shaw: a scene where the heroes rappel down the side of a building in pursuit of Brixton and a scene where they have HALO jump into the villains’ lair. Both stunts echo previous set-pieces from the M:I films and come off as cheesy in comparison, laden with CG and green-screen composites.
What Hobbs & Shaw lacks in tactility, it makes up for in humor and charisma. Because Johnson and Statham are having such a ball, it doesn’t matter that it’s a cartoon because at least it’s a fun self-aware cartoon that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Some people like extra sharp cheddar, others like Velveeta, and some people like both. If the audience knows what they’re getting, I personally don’t have a problem with that. Even when the film broaches serious dramatic material, the cast doesn’t embarrass itself with maudlin overacting. For the most part.
The themes of family have been a driving force (no pun intended) in this franchise since the very start, reinforced from the fourth installment onward. Deckard and Hattie’s history makes them more than random adventurers and keeps them both interesting. It’s also refreshing to see Dwayne Johnson go back to his Oceania roots via the character Hobbs, and the focus on just two of the Furious crew helps in exploring these characters’ backgrounds and not just treating them as human props. It should be noted that the first three Furious films have virtually nothing to do with each other, and Hobbs & Shaw makes an argument for the franchise being better served as an anthology.
The audience’s enjoyment depends squarely on how much they like Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. Remove them and you’re left with the most expensive direct-to-video action film ever made. That’s not necessarily an insult; there are several good direct-to-video actioners out there. The state of cinema today requires a boost, be it the superheroic trappings that the Fast & Furious series carved out for itself, or the tag teaming of two of the top talents in today’s action tentpoles. Hopefully, this team can do even better on their second lap.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐½
ABOUT UNIVERSAL PICTURES’ FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS: HOBBS & SHAW
After eight films that have amassed almost $5 billion worldwide, the Fast & Furious franchise now features its first stand-alone vehicle as Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham reprise their roles as Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.
Ever since hulking lawman Hobbs (Johnson), a loyal agent of America’s Diplomatic Security Service, and lawless outcast Shaw (Statham), a former British military elite operative, first faced off in 2015’s Furious 7, the duo have swapped smack talk and body blows as they’ve tried to take each other down.
But when cyber-genetically enhanced anarchist Brixton (Idris Elba) gains control of an insidious bio-threat that could alter humanity forever — and bests a brilliant and fearless rogue MI6 agent (The Crown’s Vanessa Kirby), who just happens to be Shaw’s sister — these two sworn enemies will have to partner up to bring down the only guy who might be badder than themselves.
Hobbs & Shaw blasts open a new door in the Fast universe as it hurtles action across the globe, from Los Angeles to London and from the toxic wasteland of Chernobyl to the lush beauty of Samoa.
Directed by David Leitch (Deadpool 2) from a story by longtime Fast & Furious narrative architect Chris Morgan and a screenplay by Morgan and Drew Pearce (Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation, Iron Man 3), the film is produced by Johnson, Statham, Morgan and Hiram Garcia. The executive producers are Dany Garcia, Kelly McCormick, Ethan Smith, Ainsley Davies and Steven Chasman.
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Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is in theaters August 2, 2019 in 2D, Dolby Cinema and IMAX with a run-time of 135 minutes, and is rated PG-13 for prolonged sequences of action and violence, suggestive material and some strong language.
