Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw Parent Guide

Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) has dedicated his life to the preservation of law and order. Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), on the other hand, has spent his career on both sides of the law, and lately it’s been the wrong one. However, when Shaw’s sister Hattie (Vanessa Kirby) comes into possession of a highly dangerous virus, Hobbs and Shaw will have to work together to help her. And there’s a complication: thanks to the virus, she is being sought by Brixton Lore, a cybernetically enhanced assassin working for the mysterious Eteon company.

In all honesty, I expected this movie to be much worse than it is. Ever since the Fast & Furious franchise moved away from street racing and into espionage and geopolitics, it lost its fun, carefree energy. The later films are the equivalent of playing Need for Speed while listening to a Tom Clancy audiobook. In short - disjointed, too long, and lacking any significant character development.

But Hobbs & Shaw steered hard into the espionage game, and it kind of worked. It’s a pretty goofy thriller, but as a brainless action comedy it comes out more or less alright. The characters are barely one dimensional, but the plot is equally stupid so it’s well balanced if nothing else. The dialogue is also much improved from the earlier films in the franchise in that some of it is actually funny instead of grimly irritating. I attribute that to having Ryan Reynolds show up for a few minutes and to the lighter overall tone of the movie.

What absolutely kills this film is the run time. By the 90 minute mark, I was very ready to be on my way. Unfortunately, the movie had scarcely buckled its seatbelt, and we were peeling away from the exit. When the story finally ended, some 45 minutes later, I felt like I had been kidnapped, thrown in the trunk, and was finally being rescued. Not that the show could be bothered to end even then, as the plot continued to unravel during and after the credits. A film that banks on a franchise with “Fast” in the title has no business crawling along like a crippled turtle.

Parental concerns are going to center on violence and swearing. As action movies go, this doesn’t have as much swearing as some, but that’s primarily because the characters are too busy being blown up, punched, thrown through walls, infected with super-viruses, and set on fire to bother talking very much. The violence is more or less what you’d expect, but I take issue with torture being depicted lightly and comedically – as will most parents. Given the level of violence in general, and torture in particular, this production definitely pushes the high end of the PG-13 rating and isn’t suitable for younger teens.

The film isn’t awful; I fit it neatly into a category labeled “watchable but bad”. Exactly the kind of movie to watch on a long flight. The plot is silly, but the action has an almost pro-wrestling sensibility that keeps things interesting. At least, until the fourth time you see someone hit with the nearest object on a table, at which point I was praying someone would crack me upside the head with a novelty tub of popcorn. I would probably have enjoyed myself more at that stage if I were unconscious.