Film Review: "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw"

“Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” is the brand new spinoff that fully embraces the action genre!

“Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” movie poster

The “Fast & Furious” has been known for its exotic/modified cars and high stakes street races. However, over time the series has strayed from purely street racing to an action heist genre. Because of this, the franchise has been left in an awkward position where it seems that it wants to move in the direction of an action thriller movie but isn’t able to give up the racing and cars elements because of how the series started out. Now, with the introduction of a new spinoff series, “Hobbs & Shaw”, they can now fully embrace the action-thriller genre.

“Hobbs & Shaw” takes place after “The Fate of the Furious”, where we see Hobbs and Shaw break out of prison and team up to find Dom. The movie opens with a side-by-side of both Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw’s lives. Hobbs, living in a modest home in America; drinking raw eggs and pumping iron, and Shaw, living in an elegantly modern condo in London; making a delicate omelet and driving a beautiful McLaren 720s. While they seem to be living vastly different lives, they are both busting up gangs and tracking down leads, leads that just so happen to be for the same thing, a super virus. Word has gone out that a super virus capable of killing the entire world’s population, has been stolen by an MI6 traitor and needs to be tracked down. In reality, Hattie Shaw, the lone survivor of the MI6 squad tasked with retrieving the virus from a terrorist organization called Eteon. However, the team was ambushed by Brixton Lore, a bio-mechanically enhanced superhuman. In order to escape with the virus, Hattie injects herself with the containment capsule, sealing the virus within her for 72 hours before the capsules break and releases the virus. To both of their disappointment and frustration, Hobbs and Shaw are brought back together by the CIA and forced to work with each other, and Hattie, to get

Luke Hobbs giving his Samoa war chant.

the virus out of her and keep it from the hands of Eteon.

“Hobbs & Shaw” is a true spinoff, maintaining itself within the Fast & Furious universe while also completely diverging from its parent series’ genre and style. It is purely an action thriller movie and it embraces this genre very well. Scenes are fast-paced, tense, and completely unbelievable, while also having funny and heartwarming moments. The main way the movie handles action is through chase sequences, where it can still utilize the “fast cars” aspect of the series, while not having to keep them as its focus. Scenes like the London car chase, where Hobbs, Shaw, and Hattie are trying to escape Lore in the McLaren 720s, are particularly heart-racing. The shot when the car drifts under two 18-wheeler trucks while Lore hops off his bike as it performs a Transformers-esque shapeshift and slides under trucks, narrowly escaping being crushed, was a show stopper. In another scene, the movie flexes its spirit, showing Hobbs with his Samoan brother, chanting a war cry that is visceral and fierce just

Idris Elba as Brexton Lore narrowly sliding under two big rigs.

before attacking a fully equipped Eteon militia. It’s awesome scenes like that that really makes this movie stand out from the rest. On the other hand, the movie sometimes takes it too over the top which makes it hard to suspend your disbelief. Things like having the Hobbs keep a military helicopter from flying away by holding it down with a chain, having Lore stop a fully armored truck that was flying at him and tossing it away like it was nothing, or seeing Hobbs fall from at least 6 stories and get up, unfortunately, takes you out of the movie.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham make an incredible duo. Both are excellent action stars while stilling being funny. Most of the comedy in the movie comes from the back and forth insults between Hobbs and Shaw. These two are exact opposites: Luke Hobbs is a man of the law, is a hulking figure, and a charming man, while Shaw is an ex-con, a lean mean machine, and lives a lavish yet closed-off life. Because of these

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham as Hobbs and Shaw in Samoa

fundamental differences, the two of them hate each other. The insults are quite funny but I felt that they would sometimes drag on for too long. When

it felt like both had said enough to each other, the verbal battle continues for a minute or two more. A wonderful surprise though was the unexpected appearances from Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Hart. Reynolds plays the CIA agent who enlists Hobbs to find go to London and track down Hattie. He brings his famous comedic style from “Deadpool” to this character who has delusions of him and Hobbs being creepily close best friends. Hart plays a sky marshal who will do anything to be a part of their team. Everything they said and did was absolutely hilarious and they were great additions to the movie. Idris Elba as Brexton Lore was also very good. Lore and Shaw were once colleagues before Shaw shot and killed Lore. Lore was revived by Eteon and bio-mechanically modified to become a super soldier or “black superman” as said in the movie. Lore was initiated into the dogma of Eteon, who wants to eradicate the weak in order to rebuild a more “perfect and stronger” humanity. Additionally, Lore is out to seek revenge against Shaw for

Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw fighting Brexton Lore

killing him. He is a menacing, cold-blooded, machine who is tragically deluded until the very end.

Overall, the movie was very thrilling and enjoyable. The action is really great and makes for a really fun experience while the comedy and one-liners helps to keep a good balance of high and low tension. I do recommend to suspend your disbelief more than you usually would and to focus more on enjoying the action than worry about the plot.

On the 29^th, a special screening of “Hobbs & Shaw” was held in New York City. The screening was hosted by Angie Martinez and Idris Elba at the Regal E-Walk at Times Square. Also in attendance were Shiggy, Ivy Rivera, DJ Ty-Boogie, Javicia Leslie, Scottie Beam, and Jeremy Ray Taylor. Check out a few pics from the red carpet below!