The bitter rivals have to team together to save the world in Fast & Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw. Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is called in by the CIA and forced to reluctantly team with his hated rival Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) to recover a killer virus that was supposed stolen by a rogue MI6 agent, who just happens to be Shaw’s younger sister Hattie (Vanessa Kirby). However, it soon turns out that Hattie is being set up by Shaw’s former partner Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), who is now a cybernetically enhanced agent for a terrorist tech cult known as Eteon.
The Fast & Furious characters of Hobbs and Shaw spinoff into their own adventure directedly by David Leitch (Deadpool 2). At this point, it has been much publicized that Dwayne Johnson entered into a real-life rivalry with Vin Diesel over the direction of the Fast & Furious franchise. Watching Hobbs & Shaw, it can be easy to see why Diesel might be upset since this film decides to throw any remaining sense of reality out the window, turning the story into an over-the-top action-comedy with science fiction elements. In fact, I would argue that it is almost a disservice to have “Fast & Furious Presents” over the title since Hobbs & Shaw is very much its own film.
Hobbs & Shaw builds on the bitter rivalry between Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw that developed over the previous two Fast & Furious films, as they are forced to team together to save the world. Vanessa Kirby (Mission: Impossible – Fallout) joins the fold as Shaw’s younger sister Hattie and there is even the return of Helen Mirren as Shaw’s mother Queenie. There are also a few surprise comic-relief appearances in the film, which are too good for me to spoil here. Then there’s the climax of the film that sees Hobbs return to his native Samoa and reunite his estranged brother Jonah (Cliff Curtis), with there also being a dialogue-free cameo by Dwayne Johnson’s cousin Joe “Roman Reigns” Anon’i, who is essentially just there to stand in the background and occasionally participate in the action.
While Hobbs & Shaw is undoubtedly a departure from the previous Fast & Furious films, it is ultimately a good thing. Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham have good chemistry together as the ultimate frenemies and it all makes for one quite entertaining, if not somewhat mindless, action film. Altogether, Hobbs and Shaw is a fun time at the movies.