Title: Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: David Leitch
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, and Dame Helen Mirren
Movie length: 2 hours 16 minutes
What It Is: A spin-off of Universal Pictures‘ The Fast and the Furious multi-billion dollar grossing franchise, this movie focuses on Luke Hobbs (Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Statham), as they are forced to team up against a new threat (Elba).
What I Thought: As a spin-off of The Fast and the Furious one can expect a lot of action throughout the movie, and does it ever deliver. Johnson and Statham together have decent chemistry on screen and as one can expect from a movie set in the Fast and Furious universe there are lots of car chases, explosions, and fight scenes.
The score by Tyler Bates (whose discography includes both Guardians of the Galaxy, and all three John Wick movies, and lots of other action oriented films was outstanding and kept the movie going.
If you are a fan of the previous Fast and the Furious movies or if you want a good summer action blockbuster type movie this is definitely one you should see. The ending of the movie does set up a potential sequel quite nicely, and considering how many movies are in the Fast and Furious franchise already a sequel is almost a sure thing.
Of course, I need to talk about the non-male stars of the movie all of which were terrific. Most noticeably thought Vanessa Kirby. She was terrific in the role of Shaw’s sister, and stole most of the scenes she was in. While Mirren was listed as one of the starts, she appears in maybe 5 minutes of the movie.
Elba as the main villain of the movie showcased his action movie chops once again as the cyber-genetic enhanced former MI-6 Agent Brixton Lore. His role felt like a Bond villain, which considering the movie (for the most part) took place in the UK was appropriate.
The supporting cast was terrific including the appearances of two well known actors (who I’ll leave as a secret so as not to ruin the surprise when they appear).
The fight scenes were terrific and well choreographed, but when you have a former pro wrestler in Johnson and someone who has trained in kickboxing and MMA like Elba it’s kind of expected.
Now for that I didn’t like about the movie. Yes it’s the first movie in a spin-off from the original franchise, but at times it dragged a bit with trying to do to much character development. Some of the character development could have been cut, as the movie clocks in at 2 hours and 16 minutes which I felt was about 20 mins or so too long.
Oh, and there are two cameos in the movie that caught myself (and most of the crowd) off-guard. The scenes with these 2 well known actors helped the humor of the movie quite a bit. Also, there is a mid-credit scene and a post-credit scene, so stick around until the very end of the credits!
My Grade: B. As I said, it’s a good action, summer blockbuster type movie but could have done without some scenes that caused the movie to drag.
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw opens August 2nd in the United States.
