Let’s get one thing out the way here. This movie is agonizingly predictable.
Not just because everyone generally knows by now what a Fast & Furious film entails – some speedy cars, an evil bad guy attempting some perform of world-ending feat, and one-liners… lots and lots of one-liners.
Fast & Furious Presents Hobbs and Shaw – which is a bit of a mouthful to say out loud, attempts to move a long way from the illegal street-racing scene of the first Fast & Furious, and move the franchise into spy territory.
It’s a spin-off that sees Dwayne – The Rock – Johnson and Jason Statham team-up to take on bad guy Idris Elba. Basically, it’s a buddy cop film as the dynamic duo attempt to stop Elba’s super-soldier enhanced character track down a deadly world-ending virus.
But here’s the thing. While the original Fast & Furious movies tended to keep along the same, admittedly rough theme – that of fast cars – this one doesn’t even do that. Instead, it seems like a paint-by-numbers action flick where director David Leitch simply ticked off stunts from a studio-made checklist.
Obligatory car chase? Check. Gratuitous violence? Check. Car flying through the air? Check. The rock, saying something mildly funny and then threatening physical violence? Check.
Which is a bit of a shame, given that Leitch is a truly talented director. And that both Johnson and Statham have a huge following – but only ever perform a typically masculine pissing contest that gets old very, very quickly.
Hobbs and Shaw has its moments, and the stunts – as per usual – deserve special commendation. But the film barely gets any deeper than its over-the-top plotline, single-minded acting and explosions.
Some people won’t mind that at all, hey – the cinema is about escapism, right? But others looking for a bit more substance are probably better off forgoing this spin off for Fast and Furious 9.
Wait, there’s a Fast and Furious 9? When are they going to stop?
