Movie Review: It’s Bros Before Prose in "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw"

Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham leave Vin behind for a movie-length flex.

Finally, the Fast & Furious franchise pulls over to the side of the road for some quiet time with its two most complicated figures, with a character study that evokes Chantal Akerman’s patient 201-minute drama Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.

Kidding. In this film, Dwayne Johnson yanks a helicopter from the air by a chain with his bare hands.

The spin-off to the overarching F&F saga, titled Hobbs & Shaw—or, as I’ve come to call it, Hobbs et Shaw—isn’t exactly slow food cinema, even in comparison to its eight (eight!) predecessors.

Gone are Dom Toretto and his "fam-buh-lee" of souped-up car thieves (upon whom the American government has been consistently relying on to save the world from international terrorists of late). In this David Leitch-directed diversion, it’s up to Johnson’s jacked federal agent Luke Hobbs and his British frenemy Deckard Shaw, played by Jason Statham, to carry on the "fam-buh-lee" business. And it makes as little sense as you’d predict. But hey, everyone's having fun.

In the opening scene, Shaw’s MI6 super-soldier sister, Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), is framed for the murder of her colleagues, who were actually killed at the hands of villainous motorcyclist Brixton Lore (Idris Elba). You know he’s the bad guy, because he literally introduces himself as "the bad guy". (Duh.) What he’s after is a poisonous virus that liquifies its victims from the inside, but Hattie, in an effort to keep it from him, injected the capsules into her hand and did a runner. She has 72 hours to get the capsules out before becoming infected. Thankfully, or not, the CIA has called on Hobbs and Shaw to find her, and that only takes a few hours. The bickering, however, goes on for much, much longer.

Any concerns that this side adventure would be smaller in scope than the previous flicks—and remember, last we saw these characters, Hobbs redirected a torpedo by sheer muscular force—are quickly dispelled. The Fast & Furious saga long ago left behind its modest world of street racing to become a new kind of spy series; now, we’re in the realm of superheroes, with Elba’s Brixton Lore getting technological advancements from a nefarious organisation that makes him, basically, bulletproof. He calls himself the "Black Superman", and, yeah, it seems about right.

So, who better to battle a literal supervillain than Johnson, a beloved nice guy with a zero tolerance policy for "candy asses", and Statham, a model-turned-geezer-turned-unflappable-martial-artist? You will not be surprised to learn that Hobbs & Shaw contains plenty of peacocking from the duo, who again go through the process of beating up and mocking one another before ultimately referring to themselves as brothers who’d be honoured to die at each other’s side. Yes, the egos are still strong, yet in the climactic battle, our stars at least agree to take some slow-motion punches for the team. Considering the rest of the Fast & Furious cast apparently have it in their contract to never lose a fight, it’s a surprising relief to see Johnson and Statham getting decked.

Leitch, a former stuntman who went on to helm Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2, knows his way around a speedy, characterful action sequence, and he has a better grasp of intentional humour than others who've been in his position. Kirby also mixes things up a little, regularly chastising the leads for acting like little boys. Screenwriters Chris Morgan and Drew Pearce try to shoehorn in some modern independence for Hattie by having Hobbs tell the protective Shaw that she’s her own woman. Notably, he says this on her behalf, in a sequence where she’s asleep beside them. This, in the world of Fast & Furious, is akin to a Malala cameo.

(Chris Morgan, who was mercilessly savaged for his screenplays by The Onion back in the day, once again demonstrates his inelegance in handling the English language throughout Hobbs & Shaw, but never more so than when his poorly-worded title card 'A Chris Morgan Productions Production' pops up on screen. Come on, my man, you make it too easy.)

It’s novel seeing the action relocate to Samoa in the closing sequences (Johnson is half-Samoan). However, there’s no denying that this is, overall, a lesser version of the Fast & Furious package, as much as Johnson and Statham would hate to deny it. The F&F films have a stubborn insistence on relying upon the Toretto clan’s abilities behind the wheel, which means every action sequence needs to involve cars in some form. Though that makes their bouts with submarines particularly questionable, it gives them a unique edge. Hobbs & Shaw, on the other hand, feels like any other spy movie, with slightly more ridiculous stakes. No surprises, its best scene involves four interlocked cars in a tug-of-war with a helicopter as they skid across a Samoan cliff-face. "Ah," I thought to myself, "some good old fashioned cinema."

3/5

Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw is now in Australian cinemas. Rated M for action violence and coarse language.