Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw ** (2019, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby) – Movie Review

Director David Leitch presents Hobbs & Shaw (2019), a spin-off movie that has little connection with the Fast & Furious series, and is basically a stand-alone action thriller. A series hijacker, it is Vin Diesel’s worst nightmare. It is supposed to be a shared universe, but Hobbs & Shaw exists in a different universe from Dominic Toretto and his car crew. Hobbs & Shaw is two hours plus of mindless mayhem, admittedly well staged, occasionally brilliantly staged, interspersed with some sagging scenes of sentimentality, comedy or unlikely romance, admittedly amiable.

The main assets are Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham as American lawman Luke Hobbs and Brit outcast Deckard Shaw, and their bantering and battling, and an extremely slick production with extremely slick CGI and extremely slick stunts. Technically, it is as near faultless as a movie can get in 2019 with $200,000,000 spent on it.

The main problems are the ridiculous impossible-to-believe story, the over the top impossible-to-believe action, and way too much of the cyber-genetically enhanced villain Brixton (giving Idris Elba a hard time to establish and maintain credibility) and Shaw’s estranged kick-ass sister Hattie (giving Vanessa Kirby a hard time to establish and maintain credibility). Meantime Helen Mirren has a pointless cameo as Shaw’s jailed old mum Queenie (and she’s quite bad as a Cockney), while Eddie Marsan is dithering about as Professor Andreiko, the Nobel-winning scientist who made the McGuffin-style virus that Brixton wants to threaten the future of humanity and Hattie has somehow gotten into her body. Kevin Hart’s cameo as Air Marshall Dinkley is an unwelcome non-laugh fest.

On the other hand Eiza González has disappointingly little to do as the alluring femme fatale Madame M, ditto Cliff Curtis as Hobbs’s brother Jonah, but both are welcome, along with Lori Pelenise Tuisano as Hobbs’s mum. So is Ryan Reynolds from Deadpool 2 as the wise-cracking Locke. That’s a cameo too, but it looks like they want him to do more in the inevitable sequel. As he is funny, that is a yes please.

Next time, why don’t they drop the Fast & Furious thingy and just call it Hobbs & Shaw 2. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw has so little connection with the series, either as it was in The Fast and the Furious back in 2001, or as it became in Fast & Furious 8 (2017), that it is time to admit this is a horse of a different colour,

Stuntman, stunt coordinator David Leitch previously directed Deadpool 2 and Atomic Blonde (2017), so it will come as no surprise that Hobbs & Shaw is all about stunts, and when the stunts stop, it starts to stall and get into trouble. Mirren as Statham’s mum? No, really?

The story is by Chris Morgan, and the screenplay by Chris Morgan and Drew Pearce. The story is thin, the screenplay is over-long. Both are just slim pegs to hang the action, CGI and stunts on. It is a violent film, with strong fighting, torture and swearing, that needed a 15 not a 12 certificate in the UK.

The Fast and the Furious (2001).

Working titles for the original The Fast and the Furious (2001) movie included Racer X, Redline and Race Wars, but in the end producer Neal H Moritz bought the title rights to the film The Fast and the Furious (1954), another film about racing.

Dialogue continues under the first part of the closing credits, so audiences are encouraged to stay till the very end. There are two mid-credits scenes with Ryan Reynolds, and one post-credits scene with Hobbs getting his own back on Shaw for his stop and search scene at the airport (annoyingly, this is in the trailer), and finally one more scene after the endless credits. Wow a lot of people gained employment through this movie – most of them computer technicians! That makes this more of an animation than a live-action movie.

The scenes set in Samoa, when Hobbs goes home, are filmed at Kaua’i, Hawaii, and are a considerable advantage to the movie, though they could have been used to even greater advantage as the location is so special. There is also considerable filming in London and Glasgow, as well as in the studio in the UK and at Universal Studios, California.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Movie Review

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