The Fast and the Furious franchise may have d/evolved from a car-based racing thriller into a purely fuel-injection adrenaline rush of posturing and stunt-work but there’s little denying that the mixture was a potent one at the box-office. Essentially critic-proof shenanigans and suspension of disbelief on an ever increasing scale produced some memorable car-chases, fights, explosions and set-pieces placed in the streets and skies of America, Europe and the Middle East.
There’s little sense of the franchise back-pedalling on any of its infamous ingredients when Hobbs & Shaw ploughs into cinemas this summer, highlighting the supporting characters played, respectively, by Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. The maverick law-enforcer and the hard-case criminal are forced to join forces when an even bigger threat Idris Elba threatens.
As the blurb explains: Ever since hulking lawman Luke Hobbs (Johnson), a loyal agent of America’s Diplomatic Security Service, and lawless outcast Deckard Shaw (Statham), a former British military elite operative, first faced off in 2015’s Furious 7, the duo have swapped smack talk and body blows as they’ve tried to take each other down. But when cyber-genetically enhanced anarchist Brixton (Idris Elba) gains control of an insidious bio-threat that could alter humanity forever — and bests a brilliant and fearless rogue MI6 agent (The Crown’s Vanessa Kirby), who just happens to be Shaw’s sister — these two sworn enemies will have to partner up to bring down the only guy who might be badder than themselves. The action hurtles across the globe, from Los Angeles to London and from the toxic wasteland of Chernobyl to the lush beauty of Samoa.
Directed by David Leitch (Deadpool 2), Hobbs & Shaw crash into movie theaters on 2nd August in the US and UK (and a day earlier in Australia!)
