Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw: Film Review

Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw: Film Review

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Jason statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Ryan Reynolds
Director: David Leitch

Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw is an assault on your cinematic senses.

A highly stylised, intensely choreographed piece of leave-your-brain-at-the-door cinema going, this beat-em-up bloodless bromance is all about hits to the head rather than massaging the brain.

In this latest, Johnson's Hobbs and Statham's Shaw are forced to set differences aside (a little) to track down rogue MI6 agent Hattie (Kirby, keeping up with the boys), who's apparently stolen a bio-weapon that can destroy the world. 

But hot on their heels is cyborg-powered Brixton (Elba)...

Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw is pure blockbuster action, that cares not for sense or sensibility.

Fight sequences have replaced the Fast and Furious’ trademark action sequences and while initially it’s welcome, the non-stop barrage of beat downs becomes tedious.

In between it all, Statham and The Rock’s continual quarreling fills the time, as these frenemies are forced to face up to the franchise’s enforced code of family, shoehorned in as it is.

It’s OTT to the point of ridiculous at times, but it’s the frisson between the duo that just keeps this action movie alive for its bloated run time. It's best not to think things like how Johnson's character can take a full bottle to the face, and emerge without a scratch at all - it's that kind of film, and oddly that kind of thing - like with the CGI - that can take you out of the goings on.

Kudos must also go to Vanessa Kirby who proves she can kick ass with the best of them and who uses her eyes to convey much more depth than either of the leads can. And Elba proves a welcome addition to the series, layering his Brixton with considerable swagger as the bad guy.

All in all though, Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw has little to no stakes, and really doesn't care about any kind of reality in the hyper stylish edges. It's instantly forgettable fare, and probably not one of the franchise's best - setting up a spinoff universe induces eye rolls, but what is truly missing from Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw is the heart that imbues a lot of the original franchise.