Hobbes and Shaw Movie Review

Hobbes and Shaw

Lucas Hobbes (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) have to team up to save the world, while trying not to kill each other.

Hobbs & Shaw must track down a rogue MI6 agent whose made off with a customisable bio weapon capable of spreading across the globe. Only issue is, the agent is Hattie Shaw (Vanessa Kirby), Deckard Shaw’s sister. Both Hobbes and Shaw buckle at the idea of having to work together to save the world. But after finding Hattie, and being hunted by the inexorable Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), a cybernetically enhanced mercenary and former squad mate of Deckard’s. Their global cat and mouse game brings ever-increasing levels of crazy mayhem and destruction until they reach the laboratories of Eteon, she shadowy tech mercenary organization Lore works for. The only place the virus, code-named Snowflake, can be safely removed from Hattie’s blood without resorting to immolation. The events at Eteon will lead to a wild, massive showdown on the island of Samoa as Hobbs and the Shaws must make a stand against Brixton and Eteon.

Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, and Vanessa Kirby all bring a lot of energy to their roles, with plenty of banter and humor added in. The back and forth between Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw is amazing. These are two men who despise each other at the start of the movie. Their different backgrounds and approaches to handling situations is demonstrated in the opening action scenes, showing Hobbs and Shaw respectively crash criminal gatherings. Hobbs, riding his chopper, in Los Angeles, fights his way into a bar and tattoo parlor with all the subtlety of a grizzly bear at a picnic table. Throwing guys around, flirting with the tattoo artist, and making a hell of a ruckus. Shaw, on the other hand, is crashing a swanky party at an upscale London night club, complete with models dancing, a backroom dressing room, and a fight where he uses a champagne bottle to throttle a bunch of eastern European gangsters. Hobbs refers to himself as a “can of whup ass”, while Shaw calls himself a “champagne problem”. These opening scenes set the conflicting tone both characters will have for the rest of the movie, a fact that is also referenced a good bit in their banter.

Johnson is very comfortable with the Hobbs character by now, and portrays him with the larger-than-life charisma and action that makes Hobbs a superhero in his own sense. His few moments with his daughter Sam (played by Eliana Sua) are endearing and funny. I particularly enjoyed the first major action scene with Hobbs and Shaw when Shaw takes an elevator down to chase repelling bad guys and Hobbs takes a far more direct approach. He jumps out the window after them. It’s a crazy scene played to great effect, both in showcasing the leads’ difference, and for the sheer spectacle of seeing Hobbs turn himself into a human projectile.

Jason Statham plays Shaw cool and collected. Statham’s strength is in his stoic delivery and laconic wit. However, the few times he does get verbose in explaining in detail his dislike of Hoobs, and the creative ways the insults fly, show that under that stoic tough-guy demeanor there is clever comedic timing. I also enjoyed Shaw’s big brother relationship with his sister. Anyone who’s an older sibling will understand what he must be going through trying to get the virus out of his little sister.

Vanessa Kirby’s Hattie Shaw managed to steal some of her own screen time for action antics even with Johnson, Statham, and Elba flying left and right and blowing everything up. She shows a good amount of range, going from tough MI6 soldier, to exasperatedly being caught between Hobbs and Shaw’s constant bickering, to eventually having to save herself when the boys get themselves into trouble at Eteon’s headquarters and subvert the plot expectations by saving them from Lore (and themselves), leading to an action-packed escape sequence in a massive abandoned nuclear facility.

Idris Elba’s Brixton Lore is a nigh-unstoppable bad-ass for most of the movie. A fact he knows very well when he says “I am black Superman”. It’s easy for action movie villains to remain cutouts without much depth of motivation, but Elba does add depth to Lore’s characterisation. Especially the backstory connecting to Shaw’s days in MI6. Lore is the quintessential transhumanist antagonist, convinced that humans are inadequate and in need of upgrading. It’s up to Hobbs and the Shaws to prove him wrong. And prove him wrong they do.

Rounding out a strong cast are cameos by Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Hart as CIA agent Locke and air marshall Dinkley, and Helen Mirren as Queenie Shaw, the Shaws’ imprisoned matriarch. Reynolds has his signature back and forth with Hobbs, to hilarious effect. I’m convinced Ryan Reynolds just appears on sets and plays himself in this cameos. And it works. His scenes are hilarious. I’m not the only one hoping to see Dwayne Johnson show up in a Deadpool movie for some more banter. Or better yet, a spinoff with agents Locke and Loeb (the CIA agent who brings in Shaw for the missions titled Locke and Loeb. Hart’s Air Marshall Dinkley’s desperate to join the team, if only because he’s tired of sitting in recycled airplane air all day. The banality of his job is played to amusing effect. After securing Hobbs and Shaw transport to Samoa in the final leg of the film, they call him to say thanks, and he takes this important call from the airport bathroom stall he’s sitting in. I only wished I could have seen some of the back and forth between Hart and Johnson that they have on social media, with their frenemy banter back and forth. Helen Mirren’s Queenie Shaw is a hardened criminal mastermind serving a sentence. She shows a tender side, wanting to see Deckard and Hattie reconcile, saying her biggest hope is to see them both sitting across the plastic barrier from her one day. It’s a wish that isn’t just said and forgotten by the movie’s end.

In fact, reconciling with family is actually an important subplot in Hobbs and Shaw. Deckard and his sister’s relationship, and her believing he had betrayed his MI6 team leading to him becoming an outlaw, are a central element. But in the final act, we see that Hobbs too has unfinished business with his family in Samoa. Hobbs’ father had been a thief and criminal, and enlisted all five of his sons to be his crew, not caring about their safety. This is what led Hobbs to become a lawman, and also led to his falling out with his family when he turned his father in. whereas Shaw’s murky past made it easy for his sister to believe the worst of him, Hobbs’ unyielding and uncompromising nature led to him breaking from his family and not going home for 25 years.

All in all, Hobbs and Shaw is a very enjoyable summer action movie. The cast is likable, the action is fun, even if over the top in regards to believability. And at the end of the day, movies like this are about having fun on the way. Watching the good guys beat up bad guys, and survive death defying situations, all with a happy ending and a family reunion in the end.

Definitely a thumbs up on this own!