Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

While the poster for Hobbs & Shaw declares it is presented by Fast & Furious, it has very little in common with that franchise other than the participation of Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham reprising their characters from the Furious films. In other words … rejoice! … the leaden, dreary Vin Diesel is nowhere to be seen in this movie! Let’s have some real fun! Hobbs & Shaw is a bizarre hybrid of spy thrillers, action pics and science fiction. While Fast & Furious movies are certainly outlandish, they remain somewhat grounded in reality, except for my personal favorite sequence of a car jumping from skyscraper to skyscraper. This movie goes totally off the rails of realism. It’s too damn long, but when it works, it works well. It also functions as a comedy in that Johnson and Statham have great timing and work really well together. In fact, I’m hoping they jettison the Fast & Furious car chase with the mushed-mouth guy movies altogether and keep to themselves. Hobbs (Johnson) and Shaw (Statham) find themselves protecting Shaw’s sister, Hattie (Vanessa Kirby of Mission: Impossible – Fallout), after she injects herself with something that will have worldwide consequences if she’s captured. It all comes together in a big, dumb summer fun kind of way.