Back when Fate of the Furious came out, I noted that the best part of the movie was the bit with Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. From that moment, all I wanted from this dumb franchise was more of The Rock and Stath. The Fast Furious gods must have heard me, because soon after a spin-off was announced with their characters, Hobbs and Shaw. We now have a trailer for that movie, creatively titled Hobbs & Shaw (technically it’s Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, but I do not acknowledge that ridiculousness. This franchise lost all titling privileges after they didn’t call the last one F8 of the Furious). This movie looks ri-goddamn-diculous and I am extremely here for it.
First of all, in what year is this movie set? Idris Elba is the bad guy and he’s like a supersoldier, and everything looks very tech-y and there is futuristic fashion. Has Fast Furious decided to be set in the future now? Or is this just hilarious production design and a ludicrous villain concept? And does it really matter? Either way, it’s totally absurd and delightful. I mean, this is the franchise where The Rock punched a torpedo to save the world. We left realism behind a long time ago. And Elba seems to be having fun stomping around and hitting stuff, and Vanessa Kirby is here perhaps to be put to better use than she was in Mission: Impossible – Fallout, where she did barely anything despite a cool character concept.
But the main attraction is Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. These two actually seem to get along, unlike other members of The Family, and they have great screen chemistry. Every moment of these two on screen together is wonderful. Can they play Batman and Superman? Because I would watch the SH-T out of a Justice League movie headed up by these two (and it would be a The Family reunion with Gal Gadot!). Obviously, Stath would play Bruce Wayne. And he can’t cover his accent at all, so it would be British Bruce Wayne, being like, “Oi Jok-ah, I’ll get ya with wiv my wunnerful toys!” Don’t even pretend like you wouldn’t be first in line for the next Justice League movie if it starred Jason Statham as Batman and The Rock as Superman.
Anyway, Hobbs & Shaw looks f-cking stupid and great and so dumb and amazing. I can’t wait for this movie. Just this trailer has already made me so happy, I am literally smiling and laughing to myself as I write this. I’m going to watch this trailer a dozen times today and I will laugh every single time. And there is no way this movie is bad, because “good” and “bad” don’t matter with movies like this. It’s like Aquaman: this movie existing is a gift, to be enjoyed for its sheer, balls-out stupidity. My most anticipated movies of 2019 are now Captain Marvel and Hobbs & Shaw. Do we even need other movies? All we need are power couples like Carol Danvers and her cat, and Hobbs and Shaw.
Attached - The Rock at Sundance a few days ago in Utah.
