Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

by Philip Price

Director: David Leitch 
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham & Idris Elba 
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 2 hours & 17 minutes 

“Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” is a movie where, in the breadth of a single scene, we are witness to a character stating that, "humanity's hate for itself is greater than its self-preservation" alongside another piece of dialogue that goes something like, "genocide, smenocide." This is to say that ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ very much knows what it wants to be with the question being if by the end of its mammoth two hour and 17 minute runtime it actually has become what it wanted to be. One might interpret these two opposing lines of dialogue (spoken by the same character, I might add) for a film that wants to have its cake and eat it too by being both a serious action film that in fact takes itself seriously while injecting consistent moments of humor with the obvious outcome being that the latter then also consistently undermines the former, but what sets ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ apart from its ‘Fast & Furious’ brethren is that, from the get-go, it's apparent this thing doesn't take itself serious at all - in any regard - and so, when a character does begin spouting philosophical verbiage as Idris Elba's Brixton Lore does from time to time he does it with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek. It only seems natural this would be the case in a movie where both Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Jason Statham play what are more or less heightened versions of their own public personas whilst The Rock takes down a helicopter with his bare hands and Statham shows off his Wing Chun kung fu, karate and kickboxing skills to the extent that if he and director David Leitch (“John Wick”) don't team-up for a martial arts-heavy film series to jump-start the next phase of Statham's career I will be sorely disappointed.
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As the ninth film in the series, but the first spin-off it only feels like the natural evolution for ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ to be as outlandish and self-aware as it is and in following through on these instincts in every situation and not attempting to get too caught-up in plot, basing anything in anything resembling reality, or details such as logic and physics Leitch and his crew end up delivering exactly what audiences are looking for from this type of summer blockbuster. Keeping a keen eye on character and an even tone with the humor and its balance with the legit action ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ maintains the emphasis on character being most important as that's what brought us here in the first place while the delivery of tight fight choreography and colossal action set pieces is what convinces us that not only should we continue to care about and invest in these characters, but that the creative forces behind the scenes care about them too...and that's ultimately what allows ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ to succeed at becoming exactly what it wanted to be.