Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (also known as Hobbs & Shaw) is an action film and a spin-off of The Fast and the Furious franchise. The plot follows the unlikely marriage of the Hobbs & Shaw characters introduced in the main series, as they are forced to team up with Shaw’s sister when a genetically-enhanced terrorist and his organization threaten the world with a deadly virus. The film is directed by David Leitch and written by Chris Morgan and Drew Pearce, from a story by Morgan. For me, this was a must-see but soon became more of the same despite one of my favorite actors at the helm.
A crew of MI6 agents from the terrorist organization, Eteon, attempts to retrieve a virus labeled Snowflake, which can be programmed to decimate millions of people. Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), an Eteon operative with advanced cybernetic implants that allow him to perform superhuman feats, arrives and kills all agents except for their leader, Hattie Shaw, (Vanessa Kirby) who injects Snowflake into herself as a dormant carrier and escapes. Brixton frames Hattie as a traitor who killed her team and stole Snowflake, forcing her to go on the run.
Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), Hattie’s brother, are both informed of the missing virus by the CIA and are assigned to work together, against their better judgment, to track it down. Shaw leaves and goes to Hattie’s house, while Hobbs manages to find Hattie; after a brief scuffle, he brings her to the CIA office. Just as Shaw then returns, the office is attacked and Hattie is taken by Brixton, who Shaw recognizes as an old colleague he previously shot and killed before he was resurrected by Eteon. Hobbs and Shaw pursue and rescue Hattie during an ensuing car chase. They manage to escape from Brixton, who falls off his motorcycle and crashes through the second level of a double-decker bus, creating an opportunity for Brixton to frame the three agents. Hobbs, Shaw and Hattie manage to locate Professor Andreiko (Eddie Marsan) Snowflake’s creator, who informs them that to prevent Snowflake from eradicating humanity, Hattie has to either be killed or use an extraction device, which is located within the Eteon factory in Ukraine, an almost impossible mission.
Okay, I’ll admit Edis Elba’s character was a little different but the rest of the film was pretty much the same old stuff. The special effects and acting were brilliant as was the flow of the story. But how long can Hollywood keep making these types of movies and keep them fresh and interesting? While they continue to be entertaining, the clock is ticking, something new has got to give. Series star and producer Vin Diesel first said in 2015 that possible spin-offs were in early development. Hobbs & Shaw was officially announced in October 2017. Hobbs & Shaw has grossed $437 million worldwide and received praise for “the charisma of Johnson, Statham, and Kirby”, as well as its “visual style and action choreography finesse”, though some critics “had trouble getting past just how much the film was attempting to fit into its two-hour-and-15-minute runtime”. Personally, if you are still thrilled by the Fast and Furious franchise, you will not be disappointed by Hobbs & Shaw. The very least I can say is that it’s similar to other movies of this type. I still recommend it — Check It Out!
The Meg is a science fiction thriller, directed by Jon Turteltaub. The screenplay is by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber. The Meg is loosely based on the 1997 book named Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. The movie follows a group of scientists who encounter a 75-foot-long (23 m) megalodon shark while on a rescue mission at the floor of the Pacific Ocean. I was so afraid The Meg was going to be another Jaws, which I have never seen. Low and behold, it was not.
I honestly don’t know how they do it. After seven Fast and Furious movies, they managed to make an eighth one even better than the others. Dom turns bad? Now there’s an interesting concept — the main character not only turns bad, he turns his back on the love of his life and the team he calls “family”. That’s enough, if you’re a follower of the series, to hurry to your local theater and purchase a ticket to see it for yourself.
I’m disappointed to say, the last movie with Paul Walker was not a good one. Furious 7 was so digitized and robotic, I almost dozed on it. Far too many car chases and far too many crashes. The team must have done billions, not millions, but billions of dollars worth of damage to the cities they frequented. The destruction of buildings were worst than Ironman 3 and Transformers. These crash/chase and demolition scenes went on endlessly. The story line wasn’t much better. The real kicker [YOU MAY CONSIDER THIS A SPOILER] was when Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) was in the hospital, laid up with severe injuries, including a broken arm, which was cast from shoulder to wrist, decided he had to leave. His cast arm was bent 45 degrees, so to remove the cast, he simply straightened out his arm and the cast exploded off. Even the audience laughed. There wasn’t any semblance of reality in the whole movie. Owen Shaw’s brother, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) is killing members of the team, one by one, for revenge after the team killed Owen in Furious 6. Also a Somalian terrorist called Jakarde (
This was a quick Hollywood, holiday season throw-in. Decent plot but nothing to get excited about. A single dad and former, top DEA agent, played by Jason Statham, ends up having to clean up his new town by annihilating a current meth lab and teaching the locals a lesson or two. There is lots of violence and action. No surprise there — Jason is known for his fighting antics and no nonsense execution of lethal blows. The big surprise for me was James Franco who played a drug warlord. I’m not use to seeing James in this type of role. He did a pretty good job for a guy who kind of zoned out on the academy awards presentation he was hosting. Another surprise for me was that Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay.
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