Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw (2019)

Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw (2019)

Director: David Leitch

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Helen Mirren, Eiza Gonzalez, Eddie Marsan, Eliana Sua, Cliff Curtis, Lori Pelenise Tuisano

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

The ninth film in the Fast and Furious franchises heads into a change in gear as it turns around to focus on what used to be two side characters that rose over the last few films: Luke Hobbs, appearing first in Fast Five and played by Dwayne Johnson and Deckard Shaw, who made his appearance as a cameo in the 6th part and was the baddie in the 7th. Hobbs and Shaw are definitely fan favorites despite not being in the leading roles in the previous films. Breaking free (mostly) from racing and heists, this one puts them on the other side of the table as they are recruited to retrieve a stolen virus suspected to be taken from Shaw’s MI-6 agent Hattie (Vanessa Kirby) when she only did it to prevent it from getting into the hands of Brixton Lore (Idris Elba) but causing her to have a limited amount of time to take it out of her body before it kills her and the world. A true everyday hero story, right?

Its important to go into Fast and Furious films with rather simple expectations of being fulfilled by mindless entertainment. With Hobbs and Shaw, its expected also that it rides heavily on the love of these two characters specifically. The story takes the time to make this a little bit more of a personal adventure for the two as each of their families and backgrounds get revealed a little deeper from their family relationships, sibling rivalries and such. There are some absurd scenes and illogical moments but it all comes with the Fast and Furious title and is also expected. Hobbs and Shaw did everything that was expected of it, which is pretty good.

Except…Hobbs and Shaw also has a ton of flaws. Nothing about those expectations that were met but rather, in its polish of it all. For one, it runs quite long and in some parts does overstay its welcome. One of the main deals is that the Hobbs and Shaw insult sequences start off to be quite funny but as it happens over and over and over again, it does tend to be less so. At the same time, it also underuses a great villain role like Idris Elba which is like Terminator with a Transformer bike as Brixton Lore and yet, he never reaches the level of dangerous villain that would have been expected probably because of not so much screen time and most of it being caught in enhancements, chase scenes or fight scenes making his character fairly shallow (not sure if thats the right word to use here).

Talking about those fight scenes. On one hand, its great that everyone here has the ability to do the scenes and there is an attempt of keeping it a lot of close combat melee and such with props and whatnot. It has a nice angle with the finale which was a big one to say the least that had its great bits. When not in the chase scene or anything else, the big fight which was especially apparent compared to the previous scenes was the amount of cutting shots as the camera moves around too much, making the scenes less immersive to watch because there was no flow. It was honestly a bit too much with the size of the scene and amount of action going on.

Overall, Hobbs and Shaw is fairly on par with my expectations and also has elements that was slightly disappointing. Disappointment is a hard thing to get over with, possibly worse than a bad movie in general. Fact is, Hobbs and Shaw is still fun entertainment and it still has a lot of decent moments and funny one liners and comedic comebacks. The acting is alright and falls in character with these two characters especially and its hard to not love Hobbs and Shaw’s family like Shaw’s mother is played by Helen Mirren or especially Hobbs mother who commands her family by waving a flip flop around. Thing is, Hobbs and Shaw, if you look at it, is like a reboot of The Fast and the Furious but without the focus on cars and heists and yet for these two characters, its about family and two rivals finding friendship together right down to the romantic angle. It stays true to the values of the franchise, which is okay. At the same time, it does need some credit for bringing in some fun cameo roles like Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Hart for example.

Be sure to check out The Lambcast episode where I was guest on for a discussion/review of Hobbs and Shaw HERE.

Opinion Battles Round 14 – Who Should Be The Next James Bond?

Round 14 of Opinion Battles and we pose an important question: Who should be the next James Bond? Spectre is coming out this Friday in Canada and I have my ticket already so its just waiting to go see it. It did take some effort to arrive to my choice but for me, Tom Hardy can do a great job at it. He’s the right age, classy, charming, lots of style and can handle some good action sequences. Check out the other choices and drop a vote on who you agree with the most!

Movie Reviews 101

 

Who should be the next James Bond?

 

We have Spectre out in the cinema and Daniel Craig’s four deal Bond contract up, we are left wondering will he return for another outing as the iconic spy or is it time for someone new? We have looked at who we want in the next tuxedo but who do you think is the best choice?

 

If you like what we are doing here and would like to join in on Opinion Battles our next subject is Best Biographical if you are interest email moviereviews101@yahoo.co.uk by 15^th October 2015

 

Darren – Movie Reviews 101

 

Luke Evans

 

When I first saw this question I wanted to say Dan Stevens because of age but with only 3 years on Stevens Evans has bought us ‘No One Lives’ where Luke plays a killer that has military training, Fast &…

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Pacific Rim (2013)

I’m going to try this alternating thing between Christmas marathon and 2013 movies.  Of course, 2013 movies will be the lesser one since I don’t have a whole bunch but my tablet’s Samsung Video Voucher has been extremely awesome and giving me free rentals.  The trade-off is of course watching a movie with a bunch of effects on a 10 inch screen.  Either way, it was going to expire so I gave it a watch over the weekend.

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Max Martini, Robert Kazinsky, Ron Perlman, Clifton Collins Jr.

As a war between humankind and monstrous sea creatures wages on, a former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and a trainee (Rinko Kikuchi) are paired up to drive a seemingly obsolete special weapon in a desperate effort to save the world from the apocalypse.-IMDB

Let me make a few things clear.  First of all, I may have been the few that actually had doubts about Pacific Rim from the trailers however, this brings us  the second point.  I am also a HUGE Guillermo del Toro fan.  I love Pan’s Labyrinth and even when he isn’t directing and just production or writer/screenplay, whatever, the man is awesome! So thats my point of why I still had lots of hope that this would be fantastic.

Now that we’ve put that aside, I guess you’re wondering how I felt about the movie.  For one, my expectations from the trailers were totally off because this movie really rocked my world even when seeing it on a tiny screen.  I’d definitely be seeking out a copy of it on a larger screen some time.  There is nothing deep about a giant monsters versus giant machines story but it packs in a whole lot of fun, some interesting dialogue and some pretty awesome visuals.  It took me for a quite an amazing ride.

A plus was definitely the characters.  The marshall was played by Idris Elba who I’ve grown quite fond of after seeing Takers.  He’s authoritative and so manly.  “Today, we are cancelling the apocalypse” Now thats a pretty impressive character.  And then we have Raleigh played by Charlie Hunnam.  Funny enough, I’m not really attached to that character but he wasn’t all bad.  I felt that his chemistry with Mako Mori was really well done though. They connected very well and for the nature of their characters, it was needed.  But nothing really beats the comic relief and the awesome mesh of Dr Newton (Charlie Day) and Gottlieb (Burn Gorman).  They were just absolute fun to watch. Another one I really liked was Herc Hansen.  That guy was so cool even though he didn’t have much screen time.

Overall, Pacific Rim is a very fun movie with some pretty cool characters, outstanding visuals and an awesome concept. I loved it and if you’re into the whole giant monsters versus machines type of movie, this is an enjoyable one! 🙂

What did you think of Pacific Rim?

Takers (2010)

The last movie of this little Paul Walker marathon features Takers.  I’ve never heard of it before searching it up on Netflix and finding it so I went in know absolutely nothing except that little description. I seriously would’ve continued on and done the whole Fast and Furious franchise marathon but no worries, I fully intend to do that before Fast 7 comes out.  Lets check this one out!

Director: John Luessenhop

Cast: Paul Walker, Idris Elba, Hayden Christensen, Matt Dillon, Michael Ealy, T.I., Zoe Saldana

A group of bank robbers lead by Gordon (Idris Elba) along with his team: John (Paul Walker), AJ (Hayden Christensen), brothers Jesse (Chris Brown) and Jake (Michael Ealy) just finished a big job and is ready to take their break.  However, their ex-teammate, Ghost (T.I.)  has early parole from jail and pulls some connections and asks them to join him for another multi-million job to steal from an armored truck.  At the same time, the previous bank job is under investigation and cops Jack Welles (Matt Dillon) and his partner are hot on their trail.

Yet another action thriller with Paul Walker! But you know, he does do great in the action genre 🙂 Takers is something of a mixed one for me.  The beginning, after we see their genius intricate plans with their first job, we get to know the team a little more.  Its a bit slow as we set up the story.  When the big heist starts, we’re only halfway through the movie.  I’m not saying its a bad movie because I rather enjoyed it and it had an awesome cast involved. I just felt like it was a bit long and could’ve done better with a tighter and shorter storyline but I’m not sure if it would’ve helped to not describe everyone? Did knowing their roles in the bank job prove to be that essential? I’m still debating those questions. It does help to make the audience connect to the team. Still, I guess using an hour to build up to the big job is pretty good already and the second half was pretty fast-paced and exciting to watch.

Did I ever tell you that I like male-heavy movies? I mean you can check out my enthusiasm for say, Fast Five HERE or The Expendables 2 HERE. Of course, this isn’t quite as mindless as those but it did have explosions, gun fights, nice looking cars and motorcycles and so many handsome men.  *ahem*I have a long time crush over Hayden Christensen and well, Paul Walker is pretty charming as always.  Then we have Idris Elba who is a total different kind of hot. Okay okay, back to the review.  I could talk about hot guys in another post.  I should do it, right?

Aside from their good looks, they all did a great job along with Matt Dillon who played the cop.  The team themselves, excluding Ghost really gave off the whole bond of a team and good friends.  I never had seen Chris Brown in anything and I was a bit not sure because of him but he did well 🙂

Looking sharp, Paul Walker! Yup, I’ve been doing it for the last 2 movies so I figured he deserved a section since its a marathon dedicated to him. Paul Walker in Takers was pretty cool. There were so many characters so his screen time wasn’t all that much but he played John.  Something like the right hand man of Idris Elba’s Gordon and also the guy with all the firepower, I believe.  Well, he did some pretty awesome gutsy moves in that role so I respect his character, he did what he had to.

Overall, Takers is a decent thriller.  Its a bit long but once everything is in place, it piles on the action: explosions, cars, motorcycles, gun fights, etc.  Its definitely a very enjoyable heist movie.  Maybe not as much as Fast Five but still quite good with a solid cast.

Have you heard of this one before?

I’ll definitely miss Paul Walker and this is the end of my little dedication to him.  If you missed the previous two reviews of She’s All That and Running Scared, you can find it HERE and HERE respectively! And if you want just a bit more on his movies, Fast Five is linked up there and Fast 6 is right HERE!

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!

We’ve gone through a tough week…but we made it!