‘Hobbs & Shaw’ turns the crazy dial on ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise up to 11

Posted on August 9, 2019

By MARK VIOLA

I’m fairly certain that after eight films, anybody going to see one of the “Fast & Furious” films knows exactly what they’re getting: guilty-pleasure, over-the-top action and little to no regard for the laws of physics. The eighth film had our heroes trying to out race a Soviet-era submarine on ice, so to say the storylines are downright ludicrous is a bit of an understatement at this point.

That being said, the direction taken by the franchise’s first spin-off, “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw,” stretches the suspension of disbelief to its breaking point, if not beyond it. If you’ve seen the trailers, you know this movie is absolutely ridiculous — so just go in knowing you have to turn your brain completely off in order to sit back and enjoy the ride.

The story revolves around lawman Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), first introduced in “Fast Five,” and former government agent, turned criminal, turned government agent Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), who served as the primary antagonist in “Furious 7.” They are forced to work together to help find Shaw’s sister Hattie (Vanessa Kirby, “The Crown”) and recover a programmable virus. Trying to secure the virus for more nefarious reasons is Brixton (Idris Elba, “The Dark Tower”), who has been mechanically enhanced by a secret organization obsessed with improving humanity through technological advancements (with a dash of genocide).

Aside from  the story (which we’ll get to in a moment), the biggest issue for me with the movie is the action. It is not terribly well filmed, which is a disappointment considering the movie is directed by David Leitch, who co-directed the first “John Wick” film before helming both “Atomic Blonde” and “Deadpool 2,” all of which featured much better action than we get here. Instead, what we get are a bunch of quick cuts and an overuse of shaky cam that grows old long before the film’s meaty 137-minute runtime reaches its conclusion.

I’ve generally enjoyed the “Fast & Furious” franchise, which has ranged from the ridiculously entertaining (“Fast Six”) to the genuinely good (“Fast Five”), so it might seem a bit hypocritical to say “Hobbs & Shaw” is a bridge too far for me when it comes to outlandish storylines, but a mechanically-enhanced superman is apparently that particular bridge for me. Still, it’s not like the trailers are lying about what you’re going to get, so if they didn’t turn you off, you’ll probably enjoy the movie.

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