FAST & FURIOUS: HOBBS & SHAW
Alternative title: The Bald And The Brave.
CERTIFICATE 12A DIRECTOR David Leitch STARRING Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Helen Mirren SCREENPLAY Chris Morgan, Drew Pearce DISTRIBUTOR Universal RUNNING TIME 135 mins
The alpha-male friction between DSS agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and criminal Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) is one of the more amusing sidelines in the recent Fast & Furious films. The Rock versus Statham… it doesn’t get more testosterone-fuelled than watching these two man-mountains trade bantz and blows. So it makes perfect sense that they form the backbone for Hobbs & Shaw, the long-running series’ first full spin-off.
The titular tough guys are brought together to track down a super-virus, aka ‘Snowflake’. It’s currently in the possession of Deckard’s sister Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), an MI6 agent framed for the slaughter of her team by Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), a self-proclaimed “bad guy” with his eyes on the virus. Now the CIA and MI6 are calling in Hobbs and Shaw to find her.
Forced to work together, the mud-slinging begins in earnest (“You sound like a giant tattooed baby,” growls Shaw, in one of the better put-downs). It’s funny, to a point, though the script’s obsession with discussing genitalia size gets a little tiresome. “Over-compensating?” remarks Hobbs, as he sees Shaw’s collection of cars. Talk about meta.
In Lore, they have a worthy foe. He’s part of ETEON, a hi-tech criminal empire run by a mysterious disembodied voice. He sports the latest in bulletproof material and has been enhanced with cyber-genetics. “We’re being chased by the Terminator!” yells Hobbs. It’s all a little sci-fi for F&F, though it’s arguably no more ridiculous than launching parachutesporting cars from planes (see F&F7).
With series regular Chris Morgan and Iron Man 3 scribe Drew Pearce on writing duties, the story soon goes global, after Hobbs and Shaw discover Hattie’s ingested the virus. Only a Russian scientist (Eddie Marsan) seems to know how to extract it, though luckily there’s a gizmo to do the extracting in ETEON’s Dr. Evil-like lair.
SLAPPY FAMILIES
There are lots of references to saving the world – Hobbs estimates this is the fourth time he’s heroically performed the task – but as ever with the F&F films, it all comes down to family. Shaw is dealing not only with his baby sis, but also his dear old mum (Helen Mirren) who’s also in a spot of bother. A third-act sojourn to Samoa, meanwhile, sees Hobbs reunited with his homeland and the resentful brother Jonah (Cliff Curtis) he left behind.
This being a F&F movie, you’d expect the action to be top-notch. David Leitch, the supreme stuntmanturned-action-director of John Wick, Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2, doesn’t let us down. A car/motorbike chase through the streets of London – bread and butter in the F&F world – is exhilarating. Same goes for a sequence in which Hobbs abseils down the side of a tower block, while a Stathamcentric corridor fight is pure Oldboy.
The addition of Elba and the kickass Kirby only adds to the fun, though the film does lose momentum in the final act, with Hobbs’ familial squabbles throwing a spanner in the works.
A few star cameos, presumably as a set-up for future episodes, also feel unnecessary. But then, in Fast & Furious, is there really such a thing as ‘too much’? James Mottram
THE VERDICT
Testosterone, muscles, action, guns, cars… it’s Fast & Furious business as usual. Could be tighter, mind, and the constant dick-measuring gets a little wearying.