'Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw' Review

Synopsis: Lawman Luke Hobbs and outcast Deckard Shaw form an unlikely alliance when a cyber-genetically enhanced villain threatens the future of humanity.

Runtime: 135 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for prolonged sequences of action and violence, suggestive material, and some strong language)

Who should see it? Fans of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jason Statham, and the Fast & Furious franchise.

Branching off from the central Fast & Furious series, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is the franchise's first spin-off. As each Fast & Furious entry drove further away from the series' starting point of street racing and small-time heists, real-world physics were chucked out the window. To no-one's surprise, Hobbs & Shaw continues that trend of escalated absurdity. If you bother scrutinizing the logic of Hobbs & Shaw, you will be miserable for two hours and fifteen minutes. To best enjoy this ride, you should suspend disbelief and mindlessly munch on popcorn.

Considering I haven't been impressed by recent projects involving "The Rock" and Statham, I approached Hobbs & Shaw with appropriate skepticism. The only Fast & Furious films I've really appreciated are the fifth, sixth, and seventh installments. I felt the franchise finally found its stride with Fast Five but grew concerned the franchise ran out of fuel when I didn't take to The Fate of the Furious. Directed by David Leitch and featuring a screenplay from Chris Morgan and Drew Pearce, Hobbs & Shaw rides the thin line between overbearing and entertaining. Surprisingly, this bombastic summer blockbuster won me over with the charm of its cast, technical merits, and outlandish high octane action.

Leitch's extensive background as a stunt coordinator and experience helming Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, and John Wick serves him well here. Leitch embraces the lunacy of the franchise's physics-defying spectacle, pairing it with the visceral intensity and visual flair frequently found in his filmography. I was occasionally disoriented by the use of quick cuts and shaky cam, but the action sequences are easy to interpret and impressively absurd for the most part. Carrying over from Leitch's previous projects, cinematographer Jonathan Sela lends an attractive aesthetic to the affair with stylish lighting and quality camerawork. I expected the entire movie to look like concrete, so I was delighted to see some stunning shots amidst the ludicrous action. Unfortunately, the film failed to really surprise me otherwise.

Regarding plot, Hobbs & Shaw is about as predictable as it gets. The buddy spy action-comedy plays out like most other flicks of its ilk, and the dialogue is equally ridiculous as the action. In Fast & Furious tradition, Hobbs & Shaw even champions the franchise's principle focus on family. Does it get any deeper than hearing that word spoken out loud from time-to-time? Not particularly, but when has it ever? Hobbs & Shaw is exactly as advertised, an over-the-top action movie with heart and plenty of cheesy one-liners. Exactly what you'd expect from a summer blockbuster.

Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham reprise their respective roles of Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw to headline the first Fast & Furious off-shoot. The baseline charisma and star power associated with Johnson and Statham are probably enough to garner most viewer's interest, and the duo measures up to that presumption. The two actors possess the macho physicality as well as an engaging rapport since their back-and-forth banter is undoubtedly a highlight. They bicker endlessly, and while not every joke lands, those which do are hysterical. The insults, which felt primarily improvised, effectively critique the other's general Hollywood persona without seeming too self-aware.

However, it's Vanessa Kirby, the breakout star of Mission: Impossible - Fallout, who emerges as a scene-stealer. Kirby's Hattie Shaw rounds out the grouping of Johnson and Statham as an intriguing third-party and capable femme fatale. Her fight scenes were particularly impressive, as they were in Fallout, so Kirby is definitely cut out for action. She's reportedly up for the role of Catwoman in Matt Reeve's The Batman, which I'd LOVE to see pan out. 

Elsewhere, Eiza González is prominently featured in the marketing material but merely relegated to a single scene. She's serviceable in the capacity used but didn't really have much opportunity to leave a lasting impression. Other high-profile actors appear in a series of uncredited surprise cameos that are funny, but somewhat distracting. It's also worth noting that there are three comedic post-credit scenes and you may be fortunate enough to see a teaser for Christopher Nolan's next film Tenet beforehand. Don't expect teases towards a sequel or you may be disappointed.

Last but not least, Idris Elba's cybernetic terrorist Brixton was a formidable foe. Elba's screen presence coupled with the character's resilience compensated for the script's shortcoming characterization while providing a worthwhile villain.

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw puts the pedal to the mettle as a prime example of an entertaining, over-the-top action-comedy. It won't be in contention for any awards, and you'll likely forget what happens soon afterward, but it's an ideal movie to close out the summer moviegoing season. Maybe this series still has gas in the tank after all.

Film Assessment: B-

'The Meg' Review

The Meg dives into the depths of the Pacific Ocean to wade alongside a team of researchers employed at an underwater facility as they discover an untouched area beneath the Mariana Trench and seek to explore all the unknown sea-life it has to offer. Much to their simultaneous delight and dismay, the scientists find a 75-foot-long prehistoric shark known as the Megalodon. The enormous sea creature was thought to be extinct, but it has survived all these years underneath a rift in the Mariana Trench and has a hankering for human flesh...

Helmed by Jon Turteltaub, a director best known for the two National Treasure installments, The Meg features a script written by brothers Jon and Erich Hoeber along with Dean Georgaris and is based on Steve Alien's best-selling novel Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror. With this year's summer moviegoing season coming to a close, it only seems right to conclude with a cheesy shark movie, and that's precisely what The Meg is. Nothing more, nothing less. I'm sure the absurd advertisements have suggested as much to you, but I was surprised that The Meg was not nearly as braindead of a blockbuster as I expected it to be. Since the release of Jaws in 1975, there has been slew of shark-themed entertainment, but none of those dorsal fins have lived up to the terror of Spielberg's classic shark flick... None of this shark-related media was meant to surpass Jaws though, but rather, they were made to capitalize on it. 

The Meg is just the latest in a tidal wave of aquatic offerings to be made in the wake of Jaws' success. A few weeks ago when I reviewed Skyscraper, I addressed its startling similarities to beloved action classics and alluded to the idea I might do something similar upon reviewing The Meg. Well, Jaws was clearly influential in the making of The Meg because a poster paying tribute to Spielberg's toothy blockbuster was released and I observed plenty of Jaws homages while watching the movie. However, in direct contrast to Skyscraper, The Meg never tries to BE Jaws. It respectfully honors the iconic film, but doesn't dare to rip it off. It's well aware that it couldn't possibly be as significant of a pop-culture touchstone and knows that it's little more than a schlocky shark flick. 

Where Jaws was afraid to show the titular creature, The Meg takes a different approach and is actually quite proud of its immense monstrosity. The toothy star is front-and-center amidst all the action because the shark special effects aren't half-bad. While certainly not awards-worthy, they're convincing enough for The Meg's purposes. It looks like a giant shark and that's what matters. However, I will say I was underwhelmed by the carnage on display. For a movie about a enormous shark, the Meg's kill-count is surprisingly low and the gore feels toothless due to the PG-13 rating. 

Otherwise, I wish The Meg had been even more absurdly over-the-top with a stronger commitment to the silliness. The film was at its best when it showed a degree of self-awareness after all (the closing title card is brilliant by the way). While understanding of its own absurdity, The Meg takes itself far too seriously and tries to be two things at once, resulting in a tonally-conflicted identity crisis. As a B-movie, The Meg isn't ridiculous enough. Whenever casting the spotlight on the characters, it's simply too shallow to garner any sympathy for the Meg's victims.

Upon reviewing this film, I had two alternatives, but was unsure as to what would be the best approach. On one hand, I could savagely devour The Meg from an objective standpoint and unfairly compare it to Jaws. My other option being for my brain to abandon ship and all thought processes as well. That way I could at least admit to being entertained from time-to-time. Ultimately, I chose to swim to the middle of those extreme whirlpools and acknowledge that audiences are meant to chomp down on their popcorn while watching The Meg. In fact, that's pretty much its sole purpose.

From a filmmaking standpoint, The Meg is woefully generic and could have used a little more bite to differentiate itself from the shark-programming found on the Syfy channel. The plot's predictable, the characters are expendable, one-dimensional stereotypes, the acting is fairly awful across the board, the rapid jump-cut editing is a joke, Harry Gregson-Williams' score is sadly by-the-numbers, and the set-pieces are ludicrous, but also lacking in creativity. Every once in a while though, something stupid happens to provoke cheers and laughter from the audience. Whether that sounds enticing or not is up to you to decide, but I suspect that Sharknado fans will be very pleased come the third act. 

To further elaborate on my gripes, I get that audiences didn't come to see The Meg for high-caliber acting or revolutionary writing, but there was absolutely no chemistry between any of the actors and that was excruciating to watch at times. Jason Statham plays the same character which you've already seen Jason Statham headlining other blockbusters as. Bingbing Li is the wistful love interest who's also capable, but sometimes a damsel in destress, and I must say that her scenes with Statham were dreadful to watch... Running down the rest of the supporting cast, Cliff Curtis is a supportive friend, Winston Chao is a mentor and father figure, Page Kennedy is related to the role of "the black guy who's just there to make quips," Ruby Rose is the tough hacker chick and you know she's tough because she has a bunch of tattoos and her name's Jaxx, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson plays the sentimental team member, Masi Oka pops in for maybe five minutes, and Jessica McNamee plays Jonas Taylor's ex-wife and hardly has any other defining traits or personality attributes. Of course, with that longwinded blanket statement comes a few exceptions though...

Jason Statham is hardly a "great" actor, but he's absolutely ideal for a film like this. His line delivery is spoken with a grizzled seriousness for him to maintain his prowess as a stoic action-hero and come across as cool whenever he gets to ride a giant shark and plunge his harpoon into it. If not for his stoicism, that sort of thing might not work as well. 

Meanwhile, Shuya Sophia Cai functions as an effective source of cuteness and comedic relief. You may ask yourself why a little girl is present in these dangerous scenarios like I did, but The Meg doesn't really bother with a worthwhile explanation. It would greatly prefer you to indulge in the adorableness, as that's a major source of the film's charm.

Elsewhere, The Office's Rainn Wilson is one of the few members of the ensemble who gets what sort of film he's in, and acts accordingly. Wilson's eccentric billionaire is a jerk, and he hams it up to an over-exaggerated extent so that you'l rightfully root for the shark to take him out because that's what kind of film this is. For those wondering, his Dwight personality doesn't seep into the character so it's not like watching The Office At Sea or anything like that. 

The Meg was poised to end this season of summer blockbusters with a huge splash, but the shlocky shark flick is held back from its cheesy B-movie destiny due to a reluctance to embrace its inherent ridiculousness and the restrained violence accompanying its PG-13 rating. To get through this, you're gonna need a bigger popcorn bucket.

Film Assessment: C

'The Fate of the Furious' Review

The Fate of the Furious flips the Fast & Furious franchise on its head when Dominic Toretto suddenly betrays his team in the midst of a non-sanctioned operation. The crew then are assembled by Mr. Nobody and must partner with an unexpected ally, former foe Deckard Shaw, if they have any hope of stopping Toretto and the cyberterrorist organization behind his shifted alliance. 

If you told me that Fate of the Furious was directed by Michael Bay, I'd probably buy it due to Straight Outta Compton filmmaker F. Gary Gray's decision to switch gears into full Transformers territory. The two franchises might as well cross over at this point because they've both got slo-mo, explosions, choppy editing, and shaky cam galore! 

Gray and his technical crew absolutely deliver on piecing together ridiculous action set pieces comprised of a standard street race in Havana harkening back to the roots of  The Fast and the Furious, an absurd chase through the Big Apple involving thousands of remotely controlled auto-driven cars, and the gang casually skidding over the frozen tundra and a nuclear submarine in efforts to stop World War III to name a couple. 

Despite Fate of the Furious' best intentions at delivering a commercialized blockbuster, the film feels devoid of the energy that bolstered previous entries (possibly due to Paul Walker's absence). Now I can suspend my disbelief of nonsensical action and overlook the bad dialogue provided I'm reasonably entertained, but Fate of the Furious never quite found that niche. I can't fault the film itself for this but Universal's marketing department plastered the coolest moments everywhere on the internet so Fate of the Furious never took me by surprise. I occasionally laughed at the senseless situations the crew found themselves in or the cheap one-liners but I was rarely invested in the insanity. 

Furious 7 tied up all the loose ends of the series nicely with a neat, little bow but veteran F&F screenwriter Chris Morgan returns to unravel that with his sixth consecutive F&F screenplay. Fate of the Furious can't help but feel like an extraneous extension of the saga because of how nicely Furious 7 wrapped things up, especially when minimal character growth occurs over the 136 minute runtime and the ending seemingly leaves little room for anywhere I could conceivably see the franchise headed. One thing that especially bothered me was that there were no lasting consequences or any aftermath from choices made by these characters. It doesn't help that the characters are virtually invulnerable either, these people are practically superheroes at this point. 

On top of that, the formulaic nature of these F&F movies is becoming more and more apparent with each new installment and I'm convinced the last four or so practically have the same ending. However, two things I can credit Morgan for are writing decent hamstrung one-liners and constructing a convincing motivation for Toretto to turn on his family (probably the only surprise in the movie). Aside from that I was awestruck at how easily entertained the people around me were, they audibly gasped and aw'ed at predictable clichés I saw coming from a mile away. 

For the most part, the cast fill out their prescribed duties but it's noticeable the material they're given is rather lackluster. Vin Diesel gets to tread new waters as Dominic Toretto explores the inherent internal conflict that accompanies betrayal. Diesel demonstrated more range in this film that I feel was missing from some of his previous performances in this franchise and lent itself well to the precarious position his character found himself in. Michelle Rodriguez's scenes opposite Diesel provides the soap opera-esque relationship drama for Letty and Dom, which is incredibly melodramatic and over-the-top but somehow works thanks to the chemistry between the two. 

Amongst the supporting roster, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson hams it up as Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham's Deckard surprisingly steals the show now that he's on the good guy's side (watch out for his plane sequence that's an absolute delight and demands a spin-off). Statham and Johnson's verbal sparring turned out to be a highlight as both get a few good insults while Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson serve as supporting comedic relief with their characters Tej and Roman competing for the affections of Nathalie Emmanuel's Ramsey. Emmanuel gets to spout technical know-how and hack plenty of databases in the same vein as her role in Furious 7 but sadly has little else to do. Kurt Russell returns as the franchise's Nick Fury, Mr. Nobody, and he's brought Scott Eastwood and accomplished actress Helen Mirren along with him because clearly the ensemble wasn't crowded enough already. 

In the antagonistic department, Charlize Theron enters the fray and you'd expect a certain level of gravitas to accompany an Academy Award winning actress like Theron in a villainous role. However, Theron absolutely phones it in as Cipher, making her the blandest foe the team have come across yet. Cipher doesn't ever trade blows with the crew, which is incredibly disappointing when you take her stint as Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road or the trailers for her upcoming action flick Atomic Blonde into account (both of which serving as sufficient evidence she can handle an action sequence). It's probably worth mentioning to keep an eagle eye out for cameos since there were a few familiar faces I didn't expect to see and there's no post credits scene so you can race out of the theater once it's over. 

When it's all said and done, I'm not really sure Fate of the Furious was a necessary addition to the franchise. It feels driven towards financial rewards rather than furthering the characters or story in a meaningful way. Legitimate fans and casual viewers of F&F who have loved each installment and are simply seeking a good time will be more than satisfied with Fate of the Furious, but anyone hoping for an interesting continuation of the F&F family story will probably be let down. The Fate of the Furious has just about everything longtime viewers of the series have come to expect; outrageous vehicular stunts, cheesy quips, and a strong focus on family, but it fails to deliver an engaging adventurous atmosphere for our characters.

Film Assessment: C-

'Spy' Review

Spy was one of the many spy films released in 2015 and I recently got around to watching it and must say that I thought it was quite refreshing as a comedic take on the genre. This film makes for the third collaboration between director Paul Feig and actress Melissa McCarthy and they fit together perfectly. Feig manages to not only do a great job directing but write some hilarious one liners and dialogue. Melissa McCarthy and her supporting cast are an effective means to transmit the hilarious lines to the audience and each do a terrific job. McCarthy makes for a great comedic action heroine underdog and brings some heart to the film, whether it be though comedy, action, or a mixture of both. Rose Byrne made for a delightful comedic villain satirizing the femme fatale archetype with plenty of great moments throughout the film. Jude Law is the slick, suave Bond type of agent and has some great action sequence at the beginning of the film that I really enjoyed. Jason Statham brings so much humor to the film through his character who just wants to prove himself allowing for so many great gags. The action in Spy is either played up for comedic beats or entertainment value throughout and I must sayI enjoyed all of it. Spy manages to find a great mixture of the comedy and spy genre films together for a great action comedy. After seeing Spy I'm significantly more interested in the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot which will pair Melissa McCarthy and Paul Feig once more. If you missed out on Spy and were interested in the film like me I highly recommend it.

Film Assessment: B-

'Furious 7' Review

I saw Furious 7 recently and really enjoyed it. I believe the best parts of the film were the crazy stunts action scenes, and the performances. The franchise has really changed throughout it's seven films with a greater focus on crazy stunts and action scenes and less focus on car races. The action scenes are even larger and more convoluted than they were in the last installment with a few major scenes that were showcased in the trailers featuring cars dropping from an airplane, a car jumping across two buildings. Going into the film I was worried all of the big action scene were spoiled but there is much more to these scenes than what is shown in the trailers. The performances in the film were also very enjoyable. I really enjoyed Michelle Rodriguez and Vin Diesel's chemistry as both are quite enjoyable to see onscreen together. Tyree Gibson does what he dopes best and delivers some hilarious lines and is mainly in the film for comedy like the previous installments. Ludacris is also hilarious and it is fun to watch him tease Gibson's character. Jason Statham delivers a very convincing performance as the film's villain but seems to provide more of a "Winter Soldier" role to the story as a trained spec ops agent that seems to be in the right place at the right time merely seeking revenge. The Rock delivers his cheesy lines with a lot of gusto however be aware that the Rock is not as large a part of this film as he has been in the previous two installments. And I am aware that Paul Walker didn't actually film all of his scenes due to his tragic death but his character has some of the best action and fight scenes. I will say that they handled the Paul Walker situation perfectly with a touching sendoff with a montage of clips that featured him from the previous Fast And Furious films. I am not necessarily connected to the franchise given that the first Fast and Furious film I saw was Fast Five however I did cry because of the suggested bigger picture and larger meaning to this scene and thought it was the best way for Paul Walker to have exited the franchise in a way that doesn't come across as offensive or a cruel version of Paul Walker's actual death from a car crash.  Overall, Furious 7 is definitely the best installment of the franchise so far and I do think this film provides a nice ending to the franchise but after a $143 million opening box office this weekend I doubt the franchise will end soon. I highly suggest watching the film if you are a fan of action films, Fast and Furious films, or want to watch Paul Walker one last time.