I gave an honest effort to try and begin this review with something decent. It became hard to elaborate on Hobbs and Shaw because it’s way to honest in it’s premise. Take two of the most recognizable action stars. Pluck them from the most popular and lucrative action series of the last decade. Figure out some reason to put them next to each other, and point them at bad guys. Proceed to let them kick the ass of said bad guys in increasingly cool ways. Yeah, that’s Hobbs and Shaw……..

Hobbs and Shaw is a spin-off of the Fast & Furious franchise. Continuing it’s predecessors tradition of getting increasingly more insane with every release. If you’ll allow a short tangent. Let me provide a brief visual history.

Yeah… Hobbs and Shaw has some insane shoes to fill.

I don’t mean to inflate the size of this review. Establishing the proper context in this case is necessary. To put it mildly, If your trying to follow up a nuclear submarine in the arctic. Sense is one of the commodities that gets thrown out the window. Hobbs & Shaw does just enough to give our two title characters reason to work together. The running gag is their open hostility towards each other. This aspect of their relationship was established in the preceding Fast & Furious movies. Hobbs ( Dwayne Johnson ) is the big tough American counter terrorism type, and Shaw ( Jason Statham ) is the British suave secret service type. Though their methods are different, the end results are largely the same. Both men can go through rooms of henchmen and look very cool while doing it.

Hobbs and Shaw are aided by two new characters to the franchise. Hattie Shaw ( Vanessa Kirby ) is the sister of Deckard Shaw. She is a suave secret service type like her big brother. She has in her possession a deadly virus that can wipe out a large portion of the world. She is being chased by new antagonist Brixton ( Idris Elba ). Brixton is a cybernetically enhanced super solider; self described as the Black Superman. Hobbs wants to find the virus and Shaw is looking for his sister. Now all the pieces necessary for the ensuing chaos have reported for duty, and it works!! All the action is delivered in spades. It doesn’t waste time getting the action going and it keeps going for the entire duration. It only takes small breaks to get the characters from one location to the other.

The weakest piece of the film is the overall narrative. Hobbs & Shaw chooses to showcase this weakness openly. Believe me… I know how bad that sounds. Could you imagine if we just let bad films pass off bad narrative as intentional/artistic creativity? It’s not that Hobbs & Shaw doesn’t care about narrative. It just correctly assumes that it’s core audience doesn’t. This really gets illustrated in the climax. Everything culminates into a big action set piece between armed mercenaries and Samoan warriors fighting in traditional robe and garb. I don’t think anybody asked for this kind of scene. Though I must admit… I didn’t realize how much I needed it until I was watching it. A lot of action films are now lesser because they are short a Samoan tribal standoff.

So just sit back and enjoy the Rock and Statham go nuts. It’s exactly what you came for anyway.