Hobbs & Shaw: A McLaren, a McGuffin, banter, and plenty of action

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  Hattie Shaw (Vanessa Kirby), Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), and Luke Hobbs (The Rock) star in Hobbs and Shaw. [credit: Universal Pictures ]

It’s August, the height of summer, and that means it’s time for the season’s traditional tent pole action movies. Hobbs & Shaw, the new Fast & Furious spinoff starring Idris Elba, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Vanessa Kirby, and Jason Statham has just reached the cinemas, and to say I’d been looking forward to catching up with the franchise’s latest is an understatement.

The Rock is Luke Hobbs, an “always gets his man” type working for the US Diplomatic Security Service. Statham plays Deckard Shaw, a former British spec-ops fellow. Both characters were introduced in previous movies as antiheroes, but after teaming up—kind of—in 2017’s Fate of the Furious, the forces of destiny (or the writers) have thrown them together in a buddy movie.

I don’t want to give too much away about the plot, but there’s a McGuffin, and Brixton—played by Idris Elba—wants it. He wants it bad. The problem is, the McGuffin has been injected into Vanessa Kirby’s Hattie Shaw, MI6 spy and Deckard’s sister. Obviously neither the Shaws nor Hobbses want Brixton to get his hands on the McGuffin, and the story goes from there.