FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS: HOBBS & SHAW

In the 80s and 90s, Hollywood denied cinephiles the pleasure of having two of its
most iconic action movie behemoths star in the same movie. Sylvester Stallone
and Arnold Schwarzenegger, whilst good friends and business partners in real
life, never starred in the same movie at the height of their tag-team dominance of
the action movie genre in the 80s and 90s.
The closest these two came to being in the same movie, I guess, would have to
be a reference to Arnold Schwarzenegger as former president of the United States
of America in 1993’s Demolition Man starring Sylvester Stallone, Sandra
Bullock and Wesley Snipes.
When eventually Hollywood saw fit to put them in the same movies (The
Expendables and Escape Plan), they had both past their prime and the novelty of
it had pretty much waned.
Two decades into the 21st Century, cinema is, arguably, yet to have a definitive
action movie behemoth in the action movie genre the same way Stallone and
Schwarzenegger ruled the genre in the 80s and 90s.
21st Century’s cinema’s closest contenders to that title would, arguably be
Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham (with my money being on the latter more).
Interestingly, Whilst Johnson (in build and machismo) harkens to the 80s/90s
muscle-bound, one man army bad-ass style of action movie hero, Statham, in
contrast, is more representative of what the 21st Century action movie hero should
look like; sleek, lean and mean fighting machine with a snazzy and bespoke
sartorial style.
So, when in 2011 the Fast & the Furious Franchise needed a souped-up do-over
to elevate it from a race car cult movie franchise to a billion dollar blockbuster
action movie franchise, Johnson’s “Samoan Thor” Luke Hobbs was introduced
in what is unarguably the Franchise’s best instalment; Fast Five.
Just when you thought the Franchise had maxed out on high-octane acceleration,
they revved it up even more with a 0-100mph in 3seconds end-credit introduction
of Statham’s Deckard Shaw in 2013’s Fast & Furious 6.
In 2015’s Furious 7 and 2017’s The Fate of the Furious, beyond the movies’
improbable storylines and outlandish over-the-top stunts, what really stood out
was the undeniable chemistry between Johnson’s Hobbs and Statham’s Shaw. It
therefore came as no surprise when in 2017, a spin-off from the franchise
involving Johnson and Statham was announced.
In keeping with the Franchise-typical incongruous and improbable storyline,
Hobbs & Shaw lays bare its storyline canvass; a genocidal virus retrieval attempt
by a crew of M16 agents goes awry when a cybertinectically-enhanced bad guy
and his crew jumps them.
But before they bad guys can get their hands on the virus and go all Thanos on
genetically-inferior mankind, the sole-surviving M16 agent injects herself with
the virus and escapes the bad-guys.
Next, a series of vignette-type sequences introduce us to the titular characters
laying the smack down on not-so-bad bad guys all leading up to the inevitable
first encounter between them since the events of The Fate of the Furious.
In their first encounter at the CIA office, Hobbs and Shaw ate up the screen with
a much expected back and forth smack talk when they find out they have to work
together.
Hobbs delivers his not quite with the effusive bravado of his wrestling character,
the Rock, but with the assured confidence of an immovable object. Statham
replies with the stiff upper lip delivery of a lone wolf bad-ass who rightly
considers himself an irresistible force.
The highly enjoyable exchanges are interspersed with high-falutin stunt and
action sequences throughout the movie’s 2-hour plus run time. Between quips of
pop-culture references, whoop whoop-inducing cameos are introduced and
almost upstaged by shameless knock-offs of stunt sequences from other movies
and tempered down with Deadpool-ish knocks on the Final season of Game of
Thrones.
Nobody goes to see an action movie (especially one from the Fast & Furious
Franchise) expecting a well-thought out and logical storyline. The attraction
really is the action/stunt sequences and flurry of repartee between characters.
Very self-aware of its genre limitations in the storyline plausibility department,
Hobbs & Shaw made no pretentions of gunning for the cerebral as much as it did
for over-the-top and deliciously enjoyable improbable action/stunt sequences
whilst also making a play for the franchise-favoured familial fall-out and
reconciliation.
Performance-wise, there was no competition (save, perhaps, for some Deadpoo-
lish brilliance that suggests a promising territory for franchise collaboration
somewhere down the road, someday) that upstaged Johnson and Statham as the
titular characters.
In Hobbs & Shaw, Johnson and Statham gave what action movie cinephiles
would no doubt have loved to see in 80s and 90s cinema; a movie starring two of
the genre’s most iconic behemoths. These two had a chemistry that was instantly
obvious and deliciously enjoyable to watch. They were Ying and Yang deployed
with an overdose of crash boom bang!7.5/10