Cinema Trips 'Fast and the Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw'

Fast and the Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw is the ninth installment in the Fast and the Furious franchise, and the first of the spin off films featuring characters that has appeared in previous films. The film was directed by David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, John Wick), and was written by Chris Morgan (eight of the ten Fast and the Furious films, Wanted), and Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3, Hotel Artemis, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation). The film stars Dwayne Johnson (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Pain and Gain, Moana), Jason Statham (Snatch, The Meg, The Expendables), Idris Elba (Thor, The Jungle Book, Star Trek Beyond), Vanessa Kirby (Mission: Impossible - Fallout, About Time, Everest), Helen Mirren (The Queen, Red, Caligula), Eiza Gonzalez (Baby Driver, Alita Battle Angel, Welcome to Marwen), Eddie Marsan (Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Vice), and Cliff Curtis (Training Day, The Meg, 10,000BC). The film has a run time of 135 minutes and is distributed by Universal Pictures.

The plot for the film is quite simple: Shaw’s younger sister is in trouble and the various agencies around the world are looking for her, while the villain of the film played by Elba is hunting her down. Both Hobbs and Shaw are brought in to find her. Beyond that there is nothing exceptional that happens in the film in a very literal sense. The film presents what is going on and we go on to see the characters the various obstacles that come their way by beating the life out of them. Then again at no point in the film did it try to fein that it was trying to be any deeper than it actually was. This film knew exactly what it was, and revelled in it, which made watching this incredibly enjoyable.

The character interactions are fantastic, and it feels as if the actors played the characters in a way that makes it seem as if everyone is aware of how ridiculous everything is and rolls with it at a hundred miles an hour. The one liners were fantastic, the chemistry between the characters was magnetic, and the ludicrousness of their actions are glorious. It was as if I was watching what Commando might have been, had it have been made today. A pure action romp. The film also had a couple of characters that were not part of the marketing at all, and when they turned up not only was it surprising, I was laughing at the sheer amount of humor that was being bombarded at me from the second they enter the frame.

When looking at where the franchise started to where it is now, what the characters are doing, and what is at stake is hilarious in its own right. The fact that the films all acknowledge this makes things all the more fantastic as there are no false pretenses as to what the franchise is. This allows for the ridiculous action set pieces to land without breaking the immersion into the film. The second act battle in this film in any other film would have been the final battle that resolved the entire story, however here, it is merely an appetizer before the actual finale, and the fact that this film managed to pull that off is quite impressive as you can be left exhausted by the frantic pace of the film, moving from one set piece to the next effortlessly.

In short, this is a very unapologetic film that fully accepts what it is, and what it is is a fun time at the films where you laugh, see things blow up, and people repeatedly fighting each other. The film also breaks the fourth wall a couple of times when it references other films that the actors had been in in the past. If you are looking for a fun time in the cinema where you would not have to think too hard about some of the logistics of the film, then this is one I highly recommend.