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Dwayne and Jason Are the Upside of ‘Hobbs and Shaw’
“Hobbs and Shaw” is a lot of fun, and miraculously stupid.
By Jon Ochiai
Director David Leitch’s “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw” stars Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) as Agent Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham as ‘reformed’ bad guy Deckard Shaw from the “Fast & Furious” franchise. Hence, the expansive convoluted title. “Hobbs and Shaw” is a lot of fun, and miraculously stupid.
In Writers Chris Morgan and Drew Pearce’s nearly incomprehensible story: MI-6 Operative Hattie Shaw, played by Vanessa Kirby, retrieves the deadly CT-17 virus on her mission. Powerful cyborg Brixton, played by Idris Elba, thwarts the operation seeking to obtain the virus, too. To keep the virus from Brixton, Hattie injects the CT-17 capsule into herself. Yeah, really.
Brixton, who rides this high-tech motorcycle, is super strong, bulletproof, and skilled in martial arts. Eteon Corporation created Brixton, who shares a past with Shaw. Basically, he’s invincible. Yet somehow, Hattie uses her smarts to leverage her escape.
Eteon’s cloaked Leader wants to create a new world order, by first erasing the ‘weaker’ elements of the human race.
Now it’s up to Hobbs and Shaw to work together to retrieve the virus, before it goes active, and again save the world. As Dwayne’s Hobbs reminds Jason’s Shaw, “… which for the record, will be my fourth time.”
Turns out: Hattie (Vanessa) is Shaw’s little sister. Consequently, Hobbs finds the smart, beautiful, strong, kick-ass Hattie attractive. According to Shaw, Hobbs ain’t getting with his little Sis. No way. Chris and Drew’s obvious narrative tension is hilarious.
The sheer upside of “Hobbs and Shaw” is its amazing cast. I love The Rock: He’s awesome. Dude is handsome, ripped, funny, and raises an eyebrow better than Mr. Spock. Well, almost. Jason Statham is a Baaaaad Man. In one scene Jason fights 4 dudes in close quarters. He gets hit from different angles, yet he’s just thrashing the hell out of those guys with punches, kicks and joint locks. Vanessa Kirby, who also starred in “Mission: Impossible — Fallout”, is the total bad ass as Hattie. She displays solid martial arts skills. Ironically, that propels the…
