Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

” Luke Hobbs, and Deckard Shaw, we have got unfinished business.”

Brixton

Summer 2019 has been an awesome one with so many movies to enjoy, but now it’s August and its come to the final big-budget film of the summer, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw. I haven’t ever been a huge fan of the Fast & Furious franchise, but it being the highest grossing franchise from Universal Pictures, and among the highest grossing franchises ever I think my opinion differs from the mast majority. I also haven’t seen all of them if that makes a difference. From the one’s I’ve seen, I think they’re extremely over the top, and have a single scene I usually enjoy but that’s about it. My biggest problem is that they take themselves too seriously, but that’s what made me actually get excited for this film because based on the trailers it for sure wasn’t taking itself seriously at all. I went into this movie fairly excited to see a new installment of a franchise I have little to no care for, and I had an awesome time!

This movie is so intentionally corny, over the top, and action packed, it’s a perfect blend to make a perfect summer blockbuster to just stuff your face with popcorn as you stare at the scene in front of you. Films like this I think are the hardest to craft as you have to hit that exact blend of comedy and seriousness, too much of one or the other and it’s either dumb or just not fun at all. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle in 2017 is one of the best examples of this type of movie, and The MEG last year came close to that mark, but I can’t think off the top of my head of many recent films that have successfully managed to capture that magic blend of being “good-dumb.” The action is fantastic and over the top with so much going on, awesome slo-mo action shots and lots of hard punches. The plot and villain are pretty basic action film material, it’s not very thick or layered but I didn’t expect it to be, Idris Elba did a great job in the role. My favorite aspect of the movie however is the constant banter between Johnson and Statham, I found myself laughing the hardest at the scenes of them just making fun of each other and constantly trying to one up the other. A few hilarious cameos also helped add to the fun, I wasn’t expecting any of them, and they were used well, I didn’t think they were wasted cameos.

The only issue I think I can find with this movie is it’s already a decent length film, but the way its edited makes it feel a whole lot longer, each act of the movie feeling like its own separate films. I think that’s my only complaint, it’s hard to make complaints about a film who’s purpose is to be dumb, but it’s also fun and I never felt like any of the moments dragged, even in the slower scenes. Overall, I’m going to give this an 8/10 and would gladly return to the theater for more if Universal Pictures is able to keep this up. Go buy yourself a popcorn, and get ready to chug a soda as you watch the action unfold. What did you think of the first spin-off from the series? If you’re a huge fan of the series was this movie less enjoyable? Or did you have as fun as I did? Let me know in the comments!