When The Fast and the Furious debuted 18 years ago, it would have been impossible to find a pundit who could have predicted that the franchise would still be around in 2019, let alone increasing its box-office revenue with nearly every entry in the series. Never pretending to be anything more than it is (fast cars, hot girls, tough guys, and loads of action), the franchise has ridden the concept all the way to the bank—standing at #7 among all movie franchises and, most likely, moving up to #5 after the release of the newest entry, Hobbs & Shaw.
With the first “spin-off” of the franchise, Universal Studios exports enemies turned frenemies Lucas Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) from the Fast and Furious series and sends them on a mission to protect Hattie, Shaw’s wrongly accused sister and MI-6 agent, from Brixton (Idris Elba), a cyber-enhanced villain out to capture a virus that can destroy the world. As an agent for Eteon, an evil organization that is out to save the world through science—even if it means wiping out much of the world’s population—Brixton shares a past with Shaw that reverberates throughout the film.
More could be shared about the plot, but let’s be honest, people don’t see summer films like this, let alone this particular franchise for the storytelling. Movies such as this exist solely for laughs and mindless entertainment. Unlike past Fast and the Furious films, Hobbs & Shaw relies much less on fast, flashy cars and instead leans more on hand-to-hand combat and gun battles—a nice change of pace after the first eight films—although a chase through the streets of London is on par with recent classic car chases in The Italian Job (2003), Ronin (1998), and others.
Jason Statham (left) and Dwayne Johnson in “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.” Photo by Daniel Smith/Universal Pictures – © 2019 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Establishing the differences between the two titular characters from the first scene onward, director David Leitch, is at his best when he allows Hobbs and Shaw to verbally assault one another. Successfully navigating this dance during the first two thirds of the movie alongside a slew of uncredited cameos and some of the most exciting stunts on film, makes this a guilty pleasure. But, the film still has a third yet to go, and it’s that last stretch that ruins what could have been the must-see action flick of the summer. Johnson clearly exercised his producer powers by moving the action from London and Moscow to Samoa where the comedy is left behind and the movie goes from stupidly ridiculous to ridiculously stupid.
To enjoy the ride that is Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, turn off your brain and go along for the ride…and be sure to stick around for the during credits and after credits scenes.
Mark Eaton