Hobbs and Shaw (2019) Movie Review

HOBBS AND SHAW (2019) MOVIE REVIEW

It is hard to believe that The Fast and the Furious franchise has been around for 18 years. For over a decade, the collection of now nine films have entertained a generation of action film fans with an emphasis on fast cars and insane stunts. Hobbs and Shaw takes full advantage of the previous film’s standards and amps it up to eleven in this entertaining, testosterone filled adventure. Fan favourite characters Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) are forced to work together to stop cybernetic-enthusiast Brixton (Idris Elba) from changing humanity forever. This simple but effective plot about stopping cybernetic terrorism soon transpires into a story about family which while the film attempted to integrate naturally, the message feels more forced by the film’s climax.

Director David Leitch orchestrated brilliant humour in his previous picture Deadpool 2 and brought much the same to Hobbs and Shaw. Whether it be a quick quip or a built-up bellyacher, majority of the jokes do stick and was met with thunderous approval from the audience, myself included. Johnson and Statham’s Hobbs and Shaw are the real driving force behind this action-comedy by implementing their real-life personalities into their characters in all the right ways. Whether it be impromptu contests based around eliminating bad guys or pulling pranks through customs, these two both work tremendously together and against one another. Idris Elba fully embodies his villain role, unapologetically using this platform to have the most fun possible while still managing to be a consistent threat for our heroes. This hammy performance is aided by the film allowing itself to not take itself too seriously. Elba’s Brixton is perhaps the biggest attribute to this by having powers rivalling that of a superhero, literally referring to himself as ‘black superman’. 

Hobbs and Shaw features some of the craziest and most ludicrous stunts put onto the big screen but unfortunately sacrifices interesting and under-developed characters as a result. This would not normally be a problem, but when the film spends a lot of its two-and-a-half-hour runtime explaining minor story elements that have little to no impact, these problems stick out like The Rock on an undercover mission. In the end however, story is not where the appeal of a film like this lies. Throughout the movie people were laughing and having fun with this Fast and the Furious spinoff flick, and for good reason. Beautifully choreographed fight sequences, the chemistry between the two leads and a soundtrack filled with memorable beats makes Hobbs and Shaw yet another reason why The Longreach Star Cinema is worth checking out on a weekly basis.

OVERALL

7 / 10