Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw – Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

Directed by: David Leitch | 135 minutes | action, adventure | Actors: Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Helen Mirren, Eiza González, Eddie Marsan, Eliana Sua, Cliff Curtis, Lori Pelenise Tuisano, John Tui, Joshua Mauga, Joe Anoa’i, Rob Delaney, Alex King, Tom Wu, John Macdonald

The Fast & The Furious franchise once started as a series about illegal street racing, but over the years the parts increasingly got bogged down in a kind of James Bond
meets the A-team-esque action spectacles. Since wrestler Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Jason Statham have appeared in the series, the tone of the franchise has changed. From drifting in the streets to ‘jumping’ from building to building in expensive cars: things can change. Given the popularity of the two aforementioned action stars, it was decided to create a spin-off around their characters. Enter ‘Fast & Furious: Hobbs and Shaw’.

In ‘Fast & Furious: Hobbs and Shaw’, security agent Luke Hobbs (Johnson) and the riotous Deckard Shaw (Statham) must team up to stop the criminal Brixton (Idris Alba).

With this sidestep the theatrical and whipped character of the last ‘Fast & The Furious’ is further emphasized. Far from street racing, this movie leans towards an old school action movie full of machismo and over-the-top stunts. Nothing wrong with that in itself, but the loveless and saltless way in which this spin-off unfolds takes all the fun out of it. This formula film has nothing interesting to offer and is mostly a waste of time and talent. Take Elba for example. This actor has a lot to offer, but has to do it with a flat role in this film. Johnson is on autopilot and so is Statham.

This outing aims for the big smile and (thankfully) doesn’t take itself as seriously as the Fast & Furious parts. The completely different tone is strange and makes this film an outsider in the franchise. What would be much more interesting is to see a movie about the vicissitudes on the set of this franchise. It’s no secret that Vin Diesel and Johnson don’t like each other. Stories about tensions have been widely reported in the press. Other fights between cast members are also grateful fodder for tabloids. It contains a much more exciting, dramatic and surprising story than what ‘Fast & Furious: Hobbs and Shaw’ offers you.