Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

August 6, 2019 10:04 AM

Lawman Luke Hobbs and outcast Deckard Shaw form an unlikely alliance when a cyber-genetically enhanced villain threatens the future of humanity.
posted by Anonymous (19 comments total)

Jalopnik: HOBBS & SHAW Is Fun But It’s No Fast And Furious Movie
posted by chrchr at 10:18 AM on August 6, 2019

I went to this because I like the principals, and it seemed like I could get through it without having seen any of the other F&F films. It was mostly OK, though there were some obvious in-jokes I didn't get, and we're expected to already know who the principals are and what they've fought for (and what it cost them) in the previous films. It was a lot of fun as long as things were moving, which was about 80% of the time. But boy, when they slowed down to do a little breathing, it was pretty insipid. Also, it was a mistake to give us any time at all to consider what was happening and why, because the plot does not stand up to even the tiniest analysis. That said, the principals are engaging, and things are whizzing around and exploding, so how much sense does it need to make?
posted by ubiquity at 11:58 AM on August 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm intrigued by the phenomenon of "Fast & Furious Presents".

Can the other movies also present? Like, "Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift Presents Solid Gold: The Next Generation" or "2 Fast 2 Furious Presents the Crest Whitestrips AT&T International Street Dance Championships Sponsored by Hydrox - A Fathom Event".

I'm ready.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 2:06 PM on August 6, 2019 [16 favorites]

I didn’t really like this. For me, the bickering between our bald heroes didn’t work. Why do they hate each other so much? I don’t know. Why does it take them so long to bury the hatchet on this mission? Their arguing just wasn’t very funny and populated just about the entire non-exploding part of the movie. The cameos felt tacked on but they also felt like a breath of fresh air.

Also I would really like to read an explainer on the physics of a linked train of hot rod trucks towing an attack helicopter. I’m real curious about how that would work.
posted by chrchr at 3:30 PM on August 6, 2019

> I'm ready.

lol, and also, I read "A presents B" as "the marketing teams of A and B met over some $23 cocktails and decided that it would be mutually beneficial for A and B to be associated inside that little consumer brain of yours" ... but also, it would only be beneficial if in general, liking A predicts liking B, right? I guess that means I should get some tickets to the "Crest Whitestrips AT&T International Street Dance Championships Sponsored by Hydrox - A Fathom Event"...? Who knows how this actually works?
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 3:45 PM on August 6, 2019 [2 favorites]

I didn't know it was possible for Ryan Reynolds to get this weird.
posted by maxsparber at 7:10 PM on August 6, 2019

chrchr, your comment made me laugh (but in an affectionate way!)

I haven't seen this one yet, but after watching 2-3 hotrods tow what must be a several ton safe through the asphalt streets of Rio in Fast Five (not to mention parachuting hot rods out of a cargo carrier...or driving a car out of one highrise into another, etc) ...hotrods towing an attack helicopter barely registers with me.
posted by sprezzy at 7:30 PM on August 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

Me, during the movie: Hey, Samoa, good to see The Rock directing some money to his people.
Also me, during the movie: Samoa looks gorgeous, I should go there.
Me, during the credits: (This movie produced with the cooperation of the Hawaiian Film Office) Hawaii, what the hell, Dwayne? $200 million dollars and you couldn't spend some at home?
posted by madajb at 9:34 PM on August 6, 2019 [3 favorites]

#JusticeForHan
posted by alchemist at 6:17 AM on August 7, 2019 [8 favorites]

Hawaii, what the hell, Dwayne? $200 million dollars and you couldn't spend some at home?

It's not as bad as it sounds. According to an article in Vanity Fair:

Though these scenes were shot in Hawaii for logistical reasons, the sequence serves as an amazing platform for bringing Samoan culture to the screen. The movie casts dozens of Samoan actors to play Hobbs’s family and friends. Characters regularly speak Samoan and pepper sentences with words like uso, which means “brother.” ...The Samoans perform a Siva Tau, a traditional war dance similar to the Haka, and fight with traditional clubs and spears, because Hobbs’s mother ... has decided that guns are too primitive. Samoa becomes a central figure in the film, serving as the only setting that can help Hobbs and Shaw save the world, not least because Hobbs and his family intimately know their way around the island.

I will note, though, that although the film got lots of similar press, I haven't seen one word about the film from a non-involved actual Samoan.
posted by ubiquity at 7:09 AM on August 7, 2019 [5 favorites]

I disagree with Jalopnik, it's most definitely a Fast and Furious movie. Every single one of them requires at least 3 out of these 5 to be one:
- vehicle passing under a truck
- NOS
- Gratuitous butt shots
- Implausible stunts involving cars being in the air
- Overly complicated villain plot

This movie had all 5
posted by numaner at 10:18 AM on August 7, 2019 [8 favorites]

Yes, for those of you who are concerned about the physics of tug-o-war between hotrods and a militarized helicopter, previous F&F movies have shown cars winning tug-o-war against cargo planes, cars parachuting out of cargo planes, cars jumping between buildings, and cars chasinga military submarine over an ice field so that The Rock can basically punch the submarine when it surfaces. This was modest, in comparison!

I found the dick joke-level bickering tedious, loved Idris Elba chewing the scenery, loved the focus on family reunions (a F&F narrative staple!), and mostly tremendously admired how Vanessa Kirby's character's winged eyeliner was PERFECT now matter how arduous her action scenes were.
posted by TwoStride at 11:10 AM on August 7, 2019 [4 favorites]

Ooo you're right TwoStride, I forgot about that ingredient:
- "Family"
posted by numaner at 1:59 PM on August 7, 2019 [3 favorites]

actually, I'd replace "overly complicated villain plot" with "family" because many action movies these days have these insane plots that only exist because everything else has been done.
posted by numaner at 2:00 PM on August 7, 2019

I really look forward to watching this movie on HBO in a hotel room in the near future. So while I haven't seen it, I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy it in that context.
posted by darksong at 7:30 PM on August 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

Instead of watching the previous movies, you can listen to the How Did This Get Made crew talk about Fast And Furious five, six, and seven.

They’re doing a live show for Hobbes and Shaw this coming Sunday and I can’t wait to hear it. I might be looking forward to it more than the actual movie.
posted by itesser at 9:28 PM on August 7, 2019 [3 favorites]

I saw it today and for me the highlight was The Rock holding together the helicopter/hot rod chain with his very own arms. My husband and I looked at each other and laughed out loud. Delightful!
posted by something something at 10:14 AM on August 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

I really look forward to watching this movie on HBO

It is indeed on HBO now.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 9:01 AM on March 15, 2020

Honestly, Vanessa Kirby, very wow.

Otherwise...hm. I saw that article about how all the action stars in F&F have clauses in their contracts that prevents them from ever losing a fight. That....explained a lot about how soggy all these movies get, and was enough to dissuade me from seeing it in the theatre. I'm also charmed by the NYTimes review that harps on how determinedly unsexy a movie with this much romcom energy is: We don’t believe in the sex anymore. All we’ve got now is the guns. When “Hobbs & Shaw” whisks everybody to a Moscow mansion stocked with sexy thieves and Shaw walks in and plants one right on the ringleader (Eiza González), Hobbs and the sister look on in horror. We’re grossed out, too. He is overcompensating.
posted by grandiloquiet at 7:28 PM on March 15, 2020