This summer’s newest action flick stars Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Vanessa Kirby and Idris Elba. Dame Helen Mirren also makes in an appearance in what is perhaps the saddest underutilization of an actress in recent memory. Johnson and Statham, as our bickering leads, have a painful lack of chemistry. Most of the movie’s dialogue is their banter, which is clearly intended to be clever and humorous. Unfortunately, almost every joke and quip in the runtime just falls flat on its face.
Idris Elba, another unfortunate misuse, was clearly not given enough to work with. He gives it his all to and tries to deliver his lines with as much potency as he can, but there’s just not much he can do with the material. In fact, I’d say most of the actors here are trying their best to make something out of nothing. Statham and Kirby really seemed to try and sell their characters (Johnson’s effort was there too, but really only as a conciliation prize), but the end of the day, a movie like this can only be held up by its action sequences. Unfortunately, Hobbs and Shaw doesn’t really deliver on this front either.
In a far cry from the street racing roots of Fast and Furious, the action here is all completely outlandish and ridiculous. Now, this isn’t bad in and of itself; when disbelief can be suspended, such scenes can work really well. In fact, one set piece towards the end, which was perhaps the most insane, I found oddly compelling. Perhaps that’s because it was paired with a touchstone to Dwayne Johnson’s Samoan culture, a plot point which was heartwarming, exhilarating, and the highlight of the movie for me. Regrettably, nothing else is as good. Set pieces with drones and jumping off of buildings and a cybernetically-enhanced Idris Elba are just sloppily put together, not very well shot, and come across as nothing more than adequate. To sell this movie for me, the action had to have been heart-pumping back to front; sadly, it wasn’t.
Other aspects of Hobbs and Shaw are exactly what you’ve come to expect from the franchise. The plot, which delivers a weird anti-technology message, is contrived and unfulfilling. The musical choices all sound like mid-2000’s club rap (although some of them were, admittedly, fire). There’s an uncomfortable sexist aura about everything they painfully try to lampshade with lines referencing male chauvinism. It just feels like every aspect of this movie trips over itself. I can see what they were going for here; I can see where they tried to make unique stylistic choices. I wanted to enjoy Hobbs and Shaw, I really did. Unfortunately, it is a better movie to laugh at, than to laugh with.
1.5/5 STARS