Baldness is apparently the result of testosterone overabundance. Which is why four hulking, behind-kicking, bald, bad boys (Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel, Jason Statham, and Tyrese Gibson) proved to be too much baldness and ego for one franchise (“Fast & Furious") to handle.
The franchise was split neatly in half, so everyone could remain alive. Then again, maybe the alleged bad blood on previous bald-bad-boy movie sets was just controversy and buplicity. I mean publicity.
![Dwayne Johnson (L) and Jason Statham at an event for “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.” (Universal Pictures)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F08%2F02%2FHobbs-and-Shaw-1.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
Well, OK, it’s the same yet different. “Hobbs & Shaw” is missing the sexy American muscle-car porn. (It does have Statham’s European, classy, high-performance McLaren, along with Johnson’s Harley-Davidson.) It does have muscle trucks.
![Dwayne Johnson (L) and Jason Statham in “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.” (Universal Pictures)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F08%2F02%2FHobbs-and-Shaw-9.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
“Hobbs & Shaw” keeps the third “F” of the “Fast and Furious” franchise, which has long been known to be “family,” but now family becomes Dwayne Johnson’s giant, fictitious Samoan family.
![Cliff Curtis (2nd L), Dwayne Johnson (C), and Joe Anoa’i (2nd R) in “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.”(Daniel Smith/Universal Pictures)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F08%2F02%2FHobbs-and-Shaw-2.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
What Goes On
He of (now widely known) Samoan heritage, Dwayne Johnson, is that self-same, self-described, “brown, tattooed ... mountain of a man,” Defense Security Service agent Hobbs, he’s always been.Vanessa Kirby plays Shaw’s sister, M16 agent Hattie Shaw. Idris Elba plays the bad guy Brixton, who’s a techno-enhanced, super-soldier/agent for an underground military organization called Eteon.
![Hattie (Vanessa Kirby) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) are siblings fighting an archvillain. (Daniel Smith/Universal Pictures)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F08%2F05%2F8_13_sister-and-brother-in-Hobbs-and-Shaw.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
Well, Shaw was originally a very bad guy, a killer in the previous car movie franchise, and the whole family is pretty much con-artist-y. Helen Mirren plays their mother and she’s in jail, but she breaks out of jail when the feuding siblings reunite. Hattie is on the good-guy side.
What does Eteon do? In Bond-villain-like fashion, it’s intent on world domination via the spreading of a deadly virus. But whoa! Hattie absconds with this virus. And to save humanity, she injects herself with all the biohazardous evil while in the back of a fleeing enemy truck—and then she jumps off the truck! Now, there’s only days left before she becomes toxic and deadly! Aaaaannd scene.
![Dwayne Johnson (L), Jason Statham, and a muscle truck in “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.” (Daniel Smith/Universal Pictures)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F08%2F02%2FHobbs-and-Shaw-6-1200x800.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
Lastly, there’s a finale involving indigenous Samoan weaponry (various ornate staffs and clubs) versus hi-tech firearms! How does that work?! Well! I’m not going to tell you that. You’ll have to see for yourself, because it’s all very ingenious. It involves hi-tech gone wrong.
![Dwayne Johnson (C) and many irate Samoans star in “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.” (Daniel Smith/Universal Pictures)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F08%2F02%2FHobbs-and-Shaw-7-1200x803.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
And one more thing—there’s a tug of war between a Black Hawk helicopter and a series of linked-together muscle trucks! I strongly suspect it’s inferred that Samoan men are simply too mountain-like of stature to tinker with the tiny muscle cars that Vin Diesel likes to drive, in the other bald-headed series. So that’s what goes on.
![Jason Statham (L) and Dwayne Johnson contemplate a snagged chopper in “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.” (Daniel Smith/Universal Pictures)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F08%2F02%2FHobbs-and-Shaw-3.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
How’s the Acting?
What?! Shut up. Acting! Pffft. Actually, the Hobbs-Shaw relationship may constitute the most high-speed ping-pong game of an alpha-male insult fest ever to scorch the big screen. It’s nonstop. It requires great cardio, with each volley consisting of full-on verbal smashes; each smash is returned without missing a beat. This actually takes acting ability, and Johnson gets incrementally funnier with each film he does.![Dwayne Johnson (L) (<em>would you look at the size of that Johnson arm?)</em> and Jason Statham in “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.” (Daniel Smith/Universal Pictures)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F08%2F02%2FHobbs-and-Shaw-8-1200x638.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
Acting-wise, Idris Elba cannot be bad, even when given an empty villain to play. And, as mentioned, while the third F in F&F that stands for “family” is here represented by a giant pack of Samoans, the whole thing, while strong in tribal tats, beards, and primitive weaponry, is a bit family-lite.
![Idris Elba as a sort of black Robocop in “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.”(Daniel Smith/Universal Pictures)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F08%2F02%2FHobbs-and-Shaw-4.jpg&w=1200&q=75)