Three words: Johnson. Statham. Elba.
The only thing more satisfying than watching Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham whup each other’s asses is watching them team up to whup someone else’s.
In Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw, now streaming on Showmax, two sworn enemies – Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs (Johnson) and British military elite operative-turned-outlaw Deckard Shaw (Statham) – are forced into an unlikely alliance when evolutionary anarchist Brixton (Golden Globe winner Idris Elba) threatens to unleash a deadly virus on humanity, with Deckard’s sister, rogue MI6 agent Hattie (Emmy nominee Vanessa Kirby from The Crown), about to become patient zero.
Throwing some A-grade cameos into the mix are Oscar winner Dame Helen Mirren as Magdalene ‘Queenie’ Shaw; Golden Globe nominee Ryan Reynolds as CIA agent Victor Locke; and People’s Choice, Teen Choice, and Kids’ Choice-winning comedian Kevin Hart as Air Marshal Dinkley.
The package includes the coolest bike in CGI history and some seriously funny insults flying between the two leads. Plus, Johnson gets to honour his Samoan roots on sacred ground in a feel-good showdown complete with a traditional Siva Tau (the Samoan equivalent of the haka). But the greatest pleasure of Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw may be that none of the actors takes themselves too seriously, which means the movie doesn’t either. Hobbs & Shaw is a huge, escapist blast that’s just heaps of fun.
Stacked with all the right cred
As the latest movie in the long-running Fast Saga, Hobbs & Shaw is way past needing to prove anything, but it’s stacked with all the right cred behind the scenes anyway. It’s directed by John Wick producer and Atomic Blonde director David Leitch, while Chris Morgan, who’s penned every movie since Tokyo Drift, is once again on writing duty, along with Drew Pearce, who’s written Hotel Artemis, Iron Man 3 and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.
Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw is in no danger of being mistaken for high art, but in an uncertain world, the Fast Saga is first and foremost dependable. You know what you’re getting: stuff is going to explode, some big guys are going to get hit really hard by even bigger guys, and the collective sh*t is going to hit the fan and blow the pyrotechnics budget sky-high before the credits roll.
As Common Sense Media says, “This high-spirited summer action extravaganza delivers precisely what it promises: two great personalities, great stunts, and a little something extra. Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw … narrows its focus to the most charismatic, and funniest, of the series’ characters.”
F9, which was due for release in May 2020, has been bumped to April next year due to the Coronavirus pandemic, but until then, you can binge the entire Fast Saga on Showmax: The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7, and The Fate of the Furious.
What: Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw
Where: Showmax
WS
