Lawman Luke Hobbs and outcast Deckard Shaw form an unlikely alliance when a cyber-genetically enhanced villain threatens the future of humanity.
The Fast & Furious movies have become bigger, faster, and more insane with each passing iteration. And I like that. “Hobbs & Shaw” is the series’ first spinoff and actually manages to capture much of the essence of its predecessors; the importance of family, the emphasis on loyalty, and of course, fast cars, big explosions, and even bigger villains.
Dwayne Johnson’s DSS agent Luke Hobbs entered the fray in 2011’s fifth entry in the series, “Fast Five,” the film, for me anyway, that was more enjoyable than the previous four combined. Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw was introduced as a bad guy at the end of “Fast & Furious 6” but with the death of Paul Walker in 2013, the script for “Furious 7” had to be totally reworked and with Shaw being sent to prison at the end of the movie, only to have him join the crew in “Fate of the Furious,” his character began to work his way out of the “bad guy” zone and as we learned more about him, we discovered that he really wasn’t that bad after all. Granted, he took Han’s life at the end of “Fast & Furious 6” but that was because Dominic Toretto killed his brother. Or so it seemed at the time. In “Hobbs & Shaw,” we unearth even more about his tumultuous past and the same for Hobbs, apparently, they both have complicated past lives that we were never made aware of until now.
This time around, Hobbs and Shaw must face off against a cyber-genetically enhanced bad guy, Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), part-man/part-human. Brixton and the shady organization he works for have created a deadly virus called “Snowflake,” a pathogen that has been designed to kill the weak in society, allowing only the strong to survive. Hattie Shaw (Vanessa Kirby), Deckard’s sister and an MI6 agent, tracks down the whereabouts of Snowflake but before she and her team have a chance to retrieve it, Brixton and his men attack, killing them all. Except for Hattie. Knowing she is running out of time, she injects the virus into her blood and manages to escape. In the ensuing aftermath, Brixton makes it look like Hattie killed her own team and made off with the package. Hobbs and Shaw are informed by their superiors that they have to work together in order to track down and capture Hattie before Brixton does.
Naturally, they are very, very, very, very, very reluctant to work together but we all know that they will eventually come to like and even respect each other. And they do. The film takes the action from London to Ukraine and on to Hobbs’ hometown of Samoa, Hawaii, where he teams up with his large family as they prepare for Brixton’s imminent arrival.
The action scenes are so over-the-top you can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all but this is summer, and this is a summer movie, time to just sit back and relax, switch off your brain, and have some fun. Before we know it, awards season will be upon us and we’ll be subjected to tears, death, more tears, emotional turmoil, even more tears, and finally, Oscar. In the meantime, enjoy what’s left of the summer and learn to let go and just savor the moment.
Johnson and Statham make for a very unlikely duo but by the end of the movie, they have us rooting for them, leaving the door wide open for the inevitable sequels. Some people have mentioned having a hard time with Shaw becoming a good guy because he killed Han but with the imminent attack at the end of the film by Brixton and his men, Shaw tells his sister that he needs to make amends for his past, and this is a direct acknowledgment of Han’s demise. Idris Elba glides through the movie with gleeful abandon and it’s clearly obvious why so many people want him as the next James Bond, even when he’s killing people, he has a sense of sophistication and overconfidence that would serve him well in a tuxedo and an Aston Martin.
Vanessa Kirby, who starred opposite Tom Cruise in “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” here carries herself competently, and her character harkens back to “Mission: Impossible II,” and the character of Nyah Hall, played by Thandie Newton, who in order to prevent a deadly virus escaping into the world, selflessly injects herself with it. Kirby infuses her character with plenty of English humor and of course, she plays a possible love interest for Johnson’s Hobbs, much to Shaw’s chagrin. Two big Hollywood A-listers turn up in uncredited cameos and they practically steal every scene they are in but if this is a hint of their inclusion in further installments, then sign me up right now!
In Theaters Friday, August 2nd
