Hobbs & Shaw Review Round-Up

The Fast & Furious franchise is one of the biggest around the world, each of the last few installments proving to be absolute behemoth’s at the global box office. With all of the success, it’s honestly surprising that it took this long for the Universal juggernaut to launch a spinoff film, but that’s finally changing this weekend with the release of Hobbs & Shaw.

Two of the Furious franchise’s most bankable stars — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham — team up in their own take on the street racing-turned-world saving idea in Hobbs & Shaw, and the reviews for the new movie are finally in. Does the high-octane action flick live up to the wild expectations set by the trailers?

Whether they love it or hate it, just about every critic has the same thing to say about Hobbs & Shaw. It seems as though this movie definitely delivers on the wild, exciting, nonsensical premise and has a ton of fun while doing it. This has some critics raving, while leaving others a little disappointed.

Interested to see what all of the reviews have to say about Hobbs & Shaw? Check out a few of them below!

ComicBook.com – Brandon Davis

“The Fast & Furious franchise is launching its first spinoff film in the form of Hobbs & Shaw. It’s a franchise that has already exceeded its life expectancy by cranking out eight films but it’s only gained momentum with each release, making a spinoff seemingly inevitable in the current movie culture. Fortunately, the Hobbs & Shaw spinoff not only boasts the same ridiculous, gravity-defying aspects the franchise has come to embrace but it offers them up in a self-aware, largely entertaining format.”

You can read our full review here.

Vulture – Bilge Ebiri

“But not all action set pieces are created equal: The physical combat is tightly choreographed and elegant, and a climactic, Seven Samurai–inspired melee in Samoa is both rousing and inventive, with an eye-popping bit where a whole series of ramshackle trucks chain themselves together mid-chase to bring down a helicopter. But there are parts that seem lifeless and obligatory. A car-and-motorcycle pursuit through London has some cute stunts but feels like a retread of scenes that the Mission: Impossible series has already topped. And a big, confusing, explosive face-off at Etheon headquarters, with collapsing buildings and jeeps and cycles and planes and trucks and people flying from vehicle to vehicle, feels like something cooked up specifically to remind us that this is a Fast & Furious movie. And while that series has certainly had its moments, it has also become more soap-opera-like with each new entry. At its best, Hobbs & Shaw offers a refreshing antidote to the bloat. I’d rather watch another one of these than sit through one more Vin Diesel speech about family.”

You can read Vulture’s full review here.

Insider – Kirsten Acuna

“Is it a bit silly? Sure. Did I laugh and enjoy watching the Rock and Jason Statham bicker back and forth? Definitely. But most important, the film doesn’t forget its franchise roots. For as ludicrous as some of the film’s plot becomes, family is always at the heart of the spin-off.”

You can read Insider’s full review here.

US Weekly – Mara Reinstein

“Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham aren’t here for the Oscar buzz. With a super-sized screen presence, these hulking, follicle-free actors just want to crack some bones and a few tongue-in-cheek jokes. And, hey, serving up one last treat during a brutal summer wouldn’t hurt them either. They go the extra mile joining forces in Fast and the Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, a would-be superhero entry without the costumes. The movie is almost ridiculous enough to get the job done. Almost.”

You can read US Weekly’s full review here.

IndieWire – Eric Kohn

“The world is a scary and confusing place, but at least we have Dwayne Johnson looming over Jason Statham and describing their encounters as akin to ‘dragging my balls across shattered glass.’ With Hobbs & Shaw, the Fast and the Furious franchise spins off two of its most outrageous action studs into a standalone buddy movie in which they resist every opportunity to buddy up. As special agents forced to team up against their will, the beefy Luke Hobbs (Johnson) and slippery Deckard Shaw (Statham) trade barbs with such virtuosity they outshine everything around them.”

You can read IndieWire’s full review here.

The Wrap – Candice Frederick

“Hobbs & Shaw generally doesn’t reinvent any wheels in the franchise. (It’s not even necessary that you’ve seen Fast & Furious 6, though there are a few minor references at the end of this film.) But it does underscore the undeniable chemistry between bonafide action figures Johnson and Statham in a film that doesn’t try to be anything more than a frivolous blockbuster, but with heart.”

You can read The Wrap’s full review here.

EW – Leah Greenblatt

“The screenplay, by Chris Morgan, is necessary nonsense, but it makes more basic sense than most of the diesel-fumed logic in the rest of the Furious franchise. And director David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2) seems to know how to set up his outrageous set pieces, then get out of the way often enough to let his stars do what they need to do: Joke, chokehold, kiss, and smash until the helicopters come home.”

You can read EW’s full review here.