Starring Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Helen Mirren. Directed by David Leitch.
The old saying goes that girls are made from sugar, spice and everything nice, that boys are made from snips, snails and puppy dog tails. If this is true, and biologically it shouldn’t be, then Hobbs & Shaw (or Fast & Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw or Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw or whatever adages are being added) is made up on Monster Energy Drinks, Lynx Africa and Protein Bars.
The spin-off from the long running franchise focusses on series antagonists turned allies DSS agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne “Dwayne The Rock Johnson” Johnson) and spy turned mercenary Deckard Shaw (Jason “Low Growl and Grimaces” Statham) for an action adventure that doesn’t so much play with physics and french kiss it, make a sick quip then throat punch it out a window.
There may be some beef between Johnson and Vin Diesel, and apparently also Tyrese Gibson and Michelle Rodriguez for making this film which put Fast & Furious 9 (or whatever it ends up being called) on the backburner, but frankly, the charm of the franchise is in Johnson and Statham. The series picked up when Hobbs was introduced and we got even more fun when Shaw became the baddie turned ally.
David Leitch, director of Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2 takes over directing here and brings his relentless action directing to new heights. The film doesn’t slow down, like a train picking up steam as it barrels along, there is no light and dark in this film, it’s all head thumping action, with music to go with it. Clearly given a bigger budget than previously, the set pieces are a classic case of everything louder than everything else, each one having to outdo the one before. And there’s different action to suit each action hungry fan, you want punch-ups? You want explosions? You want car chases? You want Dwayne Johnson taking down a chopper with his bare hands while 50 Somoan battleship-like men perform a tribal chant and club bad guys over the head with homemade weapons, while Idris Elba attempts to cull the planet? Well, are you in for a treat.
Johnson is now five films into playing Luke Hobbs and while it’s no great acting stretch, the charisma cruise liner knows how to sell a joke, while Statham is basically playing James Bond on steroids and loving every second of it. This is the film that The Meg or Skyscraper promised last year, it just took the two of them getting into a room together to make it happen.
What works is that they’re surrounded by people clearly here for a good time. Proper actors, not action beefcakes round off the cast – Vanessa Kirby weirdly plays Statham’s sister (they’re meant to be like two years apart despite a twenty one year age gap between the two), her cockney accent goes squiffy sometimes, but so does Helen Mirren’s who shows for two fun scenes. Idris Elba shows everyone why we wish he was Bond, in his role as superhuman soldier Brixton.
While smaller roles like Rob Delaney, Cliff Curtis and Eddie Marsan don’t have much to do, it’s fun to flesh out the characters and the spy / doomsday plot really means nothing at all because we’re here for the quips and some more fun cameos.
For devotees of the series, fear not, this film goes in hard on the family thing. People calling each other brother, and a climax that sees brother-sister love, and then every available Polynesian person play a sibling of Johnson’s Hobbs. The film has the depth of a shallow puddle, and it boils down to family being really important, but even if that is too deep for you, it’s not dwelled on long enough to confuse the breakneck action or smouldering intensity.
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Leitch also clearly doesn’t know if this film will work so throws everything at it like someone making the world’s worst stew. References to other movies, cameos, pop songs, jokes, more cameos, mis-placed pseudo-feminism, Eiza Gonzalez for… reasons. But even so, if you want the sort of action film that has no job to do except entertain you for two hours, this is the one. It’s both a champagne problem, and a nice cold can of whoop-ass. Hobbs & Shaw is possibly the best time you’ll have in the cinema, provided you like turning your brain off.
