FAST AND FURIOUS PRESENTS: HOBBS & SHAW

FAST AND FURIOUS PRESENTS:
HOBBS AND SHAW
* * * *
(Fast, furious and funny)
If you like the genre and the series of Fast and Furious films, you’ll love the team of Dwayne Johnson (Hobbs) and Jason Statham (Shaw) as rogue CIA agents saving the world from a deadly virus that “liquefies organs.”
Idris Elba plays one of the meanest bad guys ever. He is “cybernetically enhanced” and too much for Hobbs and Shaw...at least until the mandatory final showdown. The action never slows down from start to finish, as the unlikely duo put hundreds of bad guys out of commission, engage in car and motorcycle chases that are beyond description, and verbally battle each other along the way. The movie is complete fantasy, and once you buy into that you go on a roller coaster ride of constant action and destruction.
The best part of the movie is the constant banter between Johnson and Statham, as the two huge egos clash. The writers have given them some great one-liners, and we have the feeling that there may be a few ad-libs in there also. Writers also give the pair back stories. Hobbs has a young daughter who is the love of his life. Shaw has a mother (Helen Mirren) in jail and an estranged sister (Vanessa Kirby) who joins them in their battles.
Ryan Reynolds has an uncredited role as a CIA agent, and he along with another uncredited funnyman who plays an air marshal add to the fun.
After fighting their way through London and ending up in the Ukraine, the final battle ends up in a most unlikely place. The ending is both original and poignant, as Hobbs returns to his roots.
For those who know enough to stay for the credits, there are more surprises. For those who are willing to sit through the hundreds of names of people involved in this extravaganza, even after the lights go on, there is one more scene.
Rated PG-13, with lots of violence, minor profanity, but no time for sex.