Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw (2019) * *

Directed by:  David Leitch

Starring:  Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Vanessa Kirby, Cliff Curtis, Idris Elba, Ryan Reynolds, Helen Mirren

You know what to expect when watching any movie with "Fast and Furious" in the title, and on that level, Hobbs and Shaw delivers.   That doesn't mean the filmmakers shouldn't at least try to elevate the material.     We have likable actors who bring energy to roles they could play in their sleep and a more than capable action director, but Hobbs and Shaw doesn't arouse much more than a feeling of been there, done that, while coming in at a bloated 2 hours, 17 minutes. 

Luke Hobbs (Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Statham) are forced to work together to find Deckard's sister Hattie (Kirby), an MI6 agent who injected herself with a virus which could wipe out the Earth's population in order to keep it out of the hands of Brixton (Elba), a former agent who Shaw once shot and seemingly killed once Brixton went rogue, but Brixton was brought back to life as a superhuman villain by Eteon, a sinister tech group who wants the virus for themselves.   

Hobbs and Shaw don't like each other much because they've crossed paths in previous Fast and Furious films.    I only saw the last one (The Fate of the Furious), but thankfully I was able to discern what was happening without needing to watch the other sequels.    Both Hobbs and Shaw kick ass and don't bother to take names, with Shaw annihilating a group of thugs with a champagne bottle.    Hobbs and Shaw meet up, argue, trade insults, and once Hattie joins them, they are in a race against time to remove the virus from her bloodstream within 72 hours.    The place to do that?   Samoa, where Hobbs grew up and hasn't visited in 25 years due to family feuds.    Hobbs will get to save the world and patch things up with the family in one fell swoop.    Imagine that.

I won't complain about Hobbs and Shaw being silly, because that comes with the territory, and at least the movie only contains a handful of action sequences which defy the laws of gravity and physics.    However, Hobbs and Shaw doesn't add anything fresh to the action buddy movie genre either.    Johnson and Statham are, of course, top action actors, and Elba is a sufficiently hateful villain, with the fetching Kirby playing referee between Hobbs and Shaw most of the time.    There is a hint of a budding romance between Hattie and Hobbs, despite having no romantic chemistry between them at all.

Hobbs and Shaw gives Fast and Furious fans what they came to the theater for.    They're used to this sort of thing.    As far as those who are mostly Fast and Furious neophytes (like me), Hobbs and Shaw makes you wonder what the fuss is about.