Villains make a movie
memorable. If the villains are smart,
you’ve got “Die Hard.” If the villains
are stupid, you’ve got a comedy. A stand-alone spinoff of the “Fast & The
Furious” franchise, “Hobbs & Shaw” (**1/2 OUT OF ****) suffers from mediocre
villains with too much money. These
villains shoot themselves in the foot repeatedly from fade-in to fadeout. Basically, our heroes worry more about the ticking
clock than these anemic adversaries. The
sloppy villains spoil half of the fun in this white-knuckled, high-octane, adrenalin-fueled
race against time to avert a global apocalypse. Brawny action icons Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
and Jason Statham reunite as heroic co-stars in this exciting but implausible science
fiction escapade. Johnson and Statham deliver adversarial charisma as they
compete with Idris Elba in this overblown, 137-minute, PG-13 rated, demolition
derby. Our heroes must thwart an evil United
Kingdom corporation named Eteon from recovering its own bio-engineered super
virus. Benignly codenamed ‘Snowflake, the virus liquidifies your internal
organs.
Surprisingly, apart from celebrating
family unity, this souped-up apocalyptic outing shares little connection with the
Vin Diesel franchise. Although Johnson
and Statham reprise their roles from “The Fate of the Furious” (2017), you need
not have seen “Fate.” “Atomic Blonde” director David Leitch & “47 Ronin” writer
Chris Morgan, with “Iron Man 3” scribe Drew Pearce have rehabilitated Statham’s
Shaw character. Polishing off his rough,
abrasive edges makes Shaw more sympathetic.
Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson of “Skyscraper”)
and soldier of fortune Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham of “Crank”) abhor each other. The C.I.A. dragoons them into an uneasy alliance.
Meanwhile, Eteon’s cybernetic super-soldier, Brixton Lore (Idris Elba of “Pacific
Rim”), tracks down the stolen CT-17 virus. Not only must Brixton contend with Hobbs and
Shaw, but also Shaw’s sister Hattie (Vanessa Kirby of “Jupiter Ascending”), an
intelligent, resourceful British MI6 field agent. Actually, as the leading lady, Hattie doesn’t
typify your traditional damsel-in-distress. Providentially, British MI6 had intercepted
the Eteon plague before the villains could deploy it. After Brixton
single-handedly eliminates her five-man unit, Hattie has no option but to embed
the doomsday virus in her bloodstream! No sooner has Hattie stolen the virus than Hobbs’
nabs her. While our quarrelsome trio struggle to evade Brixton, Hattie develops
a fondness for Hobbs, much to Shaw’s chagrin.
“Hobbs & Shaw” crosses genres
from gravity-defying car stunts into sci-fi absurdity. Director David Leitch and his writers trot out
many familiar tropes from earlier doomsday sagas, such as “The Satan Bug” (1965),
“The Cassandra Crossing” (1976), and “Shaker Run” (1985). Even if these clichés
lack appeal to you, Johnson and Statham have a field day amusing us with their endless
verbal repartee. A wrestling match in
every respect, “Hobbs & Shaw” has our hot-tempered heroes egging each other
on with hilarious insults. Some will discover sooner than others that “Hobbs
& Shaw” amounts to little more than a game of one-upmanship, with our
heroes spending more time fighting against each other than their collective
foes. Like any good wrestling match, “Hobbs & Shaw” builds to a crescendo,
with a Samoan faceoff where our heroes regroup for the big finale. Estranged from his family for many years
because of a criminal patriarch, Hobbs approaches his Samoan clan with
contrition so he can enlist their aid.
Armed with nothing more than a flip-flop, the grand Hobbs matriarch
Sefina (Lori Pelenise Tuisano) rushes to Luke’s defense when her huge family
refuses to help him. Later, she is
ecstatic when Hobbs introduces her to Sam (newcomer Eliana Sua), her nine-year
old granddaughter.
The chief flaw in “Hobbs &
Shaw” is its error prone antagonists. The
formidable and affluent Eteon Corporation with its huge army is reminiscent of billionaire
owner Carlton Drake’s corporation in “Venom” (2018). Like the Drake corporation,
Eteon espouses a similar agenda: humanity must undergo augmentation. Although the man behind Eteon sounds every bit
as ominous as Darth Vader, Leitch and his writers never reveal the dastard in
the flesh, and this undercuts his omniscience.
Instead, Brixton serves as Eteon’s point man, and he commands legions of
disposable black-clad henchmen. Brixton careens
around on a bizarre motorcycle which resembles a Decepticon from a “Transformers”
movie because it can alter itself physically.
Sheathed in a bulletproof body suit, Brixton boasts electronically enhanced
eyesight so he can duck each blow before Hobbs and Shaw can land them. A glimpse
of his cybernetics when he submits to a painful upgrade is intriguing. Literally, the technicians have to split open
Brixton’s back to tinker his metallic spine. Egotistically, Brixton hails himself ‘the
future of mankind. After building up Brixton as an indestructible, Eteon treats
him as expendable. Why wasn’t Brix
guarding the plague device in the first place?
As in “Deadpool,” “John Wick,”
and “Atomic Blond,” Leitch indulges his wizardry as a grand master of chaotic
pyrotechnics. He stages dozens of wildly
improbable stunts. One of the first has Brix miraculously weaving his
shape-shifting smart-cycle beneath the churning wheels of two eighteen wheelers
as they crisscross in front of him at a London intersection. Later, Brix
crashes through a London double-decker bus and creates two gigantic holes in
the vehicle. Naturally, Brix suffers
nary a scratch, and no passengers were injured.
Brix may remind you of the bungling Wily E. Coyote in the Roadrunner
cartoons as he survives one calamity after another. Leitch saves the best stunt for the finale
when Brix’s helicopter winds up towing a string of cars along a winding
cliffside road. Idris Elba makes a memorable
villain. Motormouth Kevin Hart springs up in a cameo as a nosy sky marshal who wants a
piece of the action. Luke’s former partner
Locke (Ryan Reynolds of “Deadpool”) annoys him before and after the mission with
his goofy antics. The scene following
the end credits is sidesplitting stuff, especially Locke’s B-positive gag. Happily, the incompetent villains in “Hobbs &
Shaw” aren’t big enough to overshadow Leitch’s audacious stunts and the wattage
of the Rock, Statham, and Idris Elba.
