Hobbs and Shaw Review: A fairly entertaining buddy comedy actioner

Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham in a still from Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
A; Action
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Dame Helen Mirren, Eiza González, Eddie Marsan, Viktorija Faith
Director: David Leitch
Rating:

This rather peculiar attempt to resurrect a franchise goes the stereotypical way. There are Fast cars, robotic bikes, several gravity-defying chase sequences, in your face fisticuffs between the two major action heavy-weights who share some abrasive chemistry, family skirmishes, a possible romance in the making and an incredibly idiotic plot that has them going all the way to Samoa to fix the unfixable ( when even the scientist who created it gave up on that)..But isn't that what the fans were expecting anyway?

For most of its runtime, David Leitch's Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw delivers the expected and Dwayne Johnson, in an almost autobiographical subplot turn, gets to do his bit for his country of origin along the way. Thankfully, Leitch and company keep the main characters and plotting intriguingly interesting. There's a supervillain in Black Superman aka Brixton, an agent of an underground military-tech group called Eteon played effectively by Idris Elba, MI6 agent Hattie Shaw (Vanessa Kirby) who happens to be the estranged sister of Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) the enigmatic former spy and Dwayne Johnson as Security Service Agent Luke Hobbs.

The franchise vets hold back a little on their petty (buddy comedy) rivalry to team up and help Hattie get the virus(that could wipe out the world) out of her system and save the world from the genetically enhanced mercenary, Brixton. The ticking time-bomb concept gets renewed vigour from the possibility of a world-annihilating contagion that will go off in 72 hours.

Watch the final trailer of Hobb & Shaw

There's nothing new in that. We've seen far too many films peddle similar constructs for a weighty ammunition spraying finale and this film tries to go one better by leaving the hi-tech suspended while the natives face-off with the heavy-duty hi-tech gang using traditional weaponry and native cunning. The script by Chris Morgan and Drew Pearce makes it a Johnson and Statham show of strengths. Intercut fight sequences highlighting their individual fighting capabilities and then going into generic mode with a Fight, verbal spar, chase scene, repeat approach. The nonsense doesn't hurt much though because Johnson and Statham put on a blistering show worthy of their superstar action hero status.

Also read: Dwayne Johnson reveals scene which is no longer part of Hobbs and Shaw

Leitch's comedy action staple gets enhanced by the presence of Ryan Reynolds and Helen Mirren in the scheme of things- even though they don't have much runtime to do their esteemed status, justice. This may not be a great action movie but the presence of these stars ensures a nostalgic impress of the old-fashioned buddy comedy spiced up with modern technology while contrasting it with traditional mores.

Also read: The Rock shares photo with Roman Reigns from Hobbs & Shaw

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