Movie Review: Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw *** / *****

Directed by: David Leitch.

Written by: Chris Morgan and Drew Pearce based on characters created by Gary Scott Thompson.

Starring: Dwayne Johnson (Hobbs), Jason Statham (Shaw), Idris Elba (Brixton), Vanessa Kirby (Hattie), Helen Mirren (Queenie), Eiza González (Madame M), Eddie Marsan (Professor Andreiko), Eliana Sua (Sam), Cliff Curtis (Jonah), Lori Pelenise Tuisano (Sefina), John Tui (Kal), Joshua Mauga (Timo), Joe Anoa'i (Mateo), Rob Delaney (Agent Loeb), Alex King (Lt. Grapefruit), Tom Wu (Tsoi), John MacDonald (Lermotov), Joshua Coombes (Young Deckard), Meesha Garbett (Young Hattie), Harry Hickles (Young Owen). 

 

The Fast & Furious films have come to symbolize something in Hollywood – these are straight ahead, dumb, loud action movies that have no delusions of grandeur, and nothing much on their mind other than mindless action. On that level, they have always been pretty good – entertaining and stupid in equal degrees. It isn’t that the filmmakers don’t take the films seriously – they do, at times bending over backwards for the sake of continuity from film to film, and trying to find ways to top themselves in terms of insanity in their stunts – as well as their strange focus on family which gives the series an emotional through line – even if at times, it doesn’t always make sense (like say, now we will never see Vin Diesel’s sister, played by Jordana Brewster, again since she was married to Paul Walker’s character – who wasn’t killed off when the actor died, just went his own way, or, and this is more relevant to this movie, how Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw was welcomed into the family even after his introduction to the series had him murdering the beloved Han – something the filmmakers insist they will address at some point, although apparently not yet). But the films themselves are not serious – they are goofy fun, and feature a bunch of bulked up muscle men fighting, shooting or racing each other – often at the same time, even if we now know that off-screen, these men are all so concerned with how they come across, they have it written into their contracts how many shots they can take, etc. There are women in these films of course – they are, like the men – all gorgeous and their function is to do the same thing as the men, while rolling their eyes at the cheesy machismo the men display in each and every scene. It’s a formula that mostly works. This time, they decided to see if they could make it work in a spinoff. And, it mainly does.

 

This movie doesn’t feature most of the “family” at the core of these movies – instead just focusing on Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Shaw (Jason Statham) who are tasked by the CIA to bring in an asset. This asset is Hattie (Vanessa Kirby) – Shaw’s previously never mentioned sister, a MI6 agent, who injected herself with a deadly disease, in order to prevent Brixton (Idris Elba) for getting it. Brixton works for some sort of company whose goal it seems is to wipe out the weak people in the world – and who has altered Brixton so much with hardware and software, that he may be the “black Superman” as he says, but he’s also barely human.

 

So what follows is basically Hobbs and the two Shaw siblings jet setting around the world, trying to find a way to get the virus out of Hattie before it kills her – and Brixton and company always in their tail, trying to get the virus. Hobbs and Shaw don’t like each other – or so they claim – so they spend most of their time engaged in macho banter where they insult each other, and Hattie spends all her time rolling her eyes. This probably sounds insufferable – and to be honest, had been handled differently, it probably could have been – but Johnson and Statham have good chemistry together, and it sounds natural to have them insult each other. And Kirby – who by the way is 19 years younger than Statham, so it’s ridiculous to suggest they were children at the same time – is an expert eye-roller. And the action sequences are fun – directed at full tilt, so even if they don’t break new ground for this series, they are entertaining enough that you don’t mind.

 

The film was directed by David Leitch – apparently an uncredited co-director on the original John Wick, before heading out on his own to direct Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2. This film isn’t as good as Atomic Blonde – which was his way of saying he could do John Wick style action by himself, and even if he isn’t as good as Chad Stahelski – who keeps raising the bar with the John Wick series, he’s still pretty good. Here, he is good at these massive action sequences – and keeps them moving and flowing, no matter how silly they get. He doesn’t reach the heights that the best directors of this series – like Justin Lin – hit – but he doesn’t really need to. This film is more of a placeholder than anything – a way to fill in the years between 2017’s The Fate of the Furious and the ninth installment, whatever it may be called, next year. This film is just meant as a way to make you don’t forget how much you enjoy this series.

 

It feels like that as well. No matter how much great actors like Vanessa Kirby and Idris Elba come in, there is a whiff of this being a going through the motions entry in the series. It coasts on the charm of its two leads, the talent of the supporting cast, and a lot of car chases, shootouts and macho B.S. It is fine – nothing more and nothing else. It never really tried to be.

Movie Review: Atomic Blonde

Atomic Blonde *** ½ / *****

Directed by: David Leitch.

Written by: Kurt Johnstad based on the graphic novel series by Antony Johnston & Sam Hart.

Starring: Charlize Theron (Lorraine Broughton), James McAvoy (David Percival), Eddie Marsan (Spyglass), John Goodman (Emmett Kurzfeld), Toby Jones (Eric Gray), James Faulkner (Chief 'C'), Roland Møller (Aleksander Bremovych), Sofia Boutella (Delphine Lasalle), Bill Skarsgård (Merkel), Sam Hargrave (James Gasciogne), Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson (Yuri Bakhtin), Til Schweiger (Watchmaker). 

 

I don’t think the plot of Atomic Blonde makes a whole lot of sense. It takes place in 1989, in Berlin, right before the wall came down, and centers on a stolen list of secret agents. The person who stole the list is a Stasi officer, stationed on the Communist side, and all sides want the list – the Brits, the Russians, the Americans and even the French – because it would expose all the secret agents working in Berlin. But who did the Stasi officer steal the list from? If he stole it from the Russians, then they’d want it because it would expose their guys – but they seem to want it, because having it would expose the British and American officers. But the Brits and Americans want it, because it would expose a double agent working for them and the Russians. Everyone wants to the list because they want the information on it – which raises the question, where the hell did this list come from? This bothered me – a little – the whole movie, and perhaps there is a simple explanation to this, an once it’s explained to me, I’ll feel like an idiot for not realizing it in the first place. It also didn’t for a second hinder my enjoyment of Atomic Blonde which is a spy thriller and action film from director David Leitch – the uncredited co-director of the original John Wick, which is obvious early on. But more importantly, it’s because of star Charlize Theron, who you cannot take your eyes off of. The list is a McGuffin, and the plot is pretty much nonsensical – and yet, there is never a moment where you doubt that she knows exactly what she’s doing.

 

Theron’s Lorraine Broughton is a British agent who shows up in Berlin when another agent – who she had a personal relationship with – is murdered, and has the list stolen from him by a Russian agent – who then goes rogue. Her job is to team up with the Brits senior man there – David Percival (James McAvoy) – who himself has gone kind of rogue – and find the list. She’s compromised the moment she sets foot in Berlin, but stays anyway. Eventually, she’ll not only have to get the list, but also have to try and smuggle the man who stole it in the first place (Eddie Marsan) across the border. And because she looks like Charlize Theron, everyone she meets – man and woman – tries to seduce her.

 

It is in the action sequences where Atomic Blonde is both at its best, and when it’s closest to John Wick. Those movies have the advantage of simplicity on their side – in the first man, thugs kill a retired hitman’s dog, so he goes on a killing spree, the sequel has him forced back into life, and going on another killing spree. There you go, that’s the entire plot of two John Wick movies. I could spend the rest of the day trying to explain what happens in Atomic Blonde, and still not be able to do it. But it kind of doesn’t matter – the action sequences have the same visceral thrill to them that John Wick’s do – the same bloody mess. I do think that Leitch relies too much on shaky camera work at times, but mainly, he knows when to hold the shot – there is a hallway fight sequence, where Theron protects her man, and kicks a lot of ass, all done in seemingly one shot, that is already legendary for the type of scene it is. All of the action sequences are similarly well handled and exciting.

 

And when Theron isn’t kicking ass, she’s still the center of nearly every scene. She plays Lorraine as a cold as ice killer – allowing herself only a few, mostly private moments of either pleasure or pain – and she does it better than I’ve seen her do it before (she wasn’t really that good in the latest Fast & Furious movie as the villain – and she has mixed results in other blockbusters playing cold roles). Here, she gets on the movies wavelength from the start, and her performance is a riot. The rest of the cast gamely tries to keep up – McAvoy is essentially repeating his role in Filth again, but he’s fun. Everyone else kind of fades into the background as Theron takes over.

 

I don’t think Atomic Blonde is quite the film that either John Wick film is – but that’s because the plot more than anything, not because of Theron – who I want to see in this type of movie again, and soon. She’s great – the film is pretty good – but she’s what makes it worth seeing. 

Movie Review: John Wick

John Wick
Directed by: David Leitch & Chad Stahelski.
Written by: Derek Kolstad.
Starring: Keanu Reeves (John Wick), Michael Nyqvist (Viggo Tarasov), Alfie Allen (Iosef Tarasov), Willem Dafoe (Marcus), Dean Winters (Avi), Adrianne Palicki (Ms. Perkins), Omer Barnea (Gregori), Toby Leonard Moore (Victor), Daniel Bernhardt (Kirill), Bridget Moynahan (Helen), John Leguizamo (Aureilo), Ian McShane (Winston), Bridget Regan (Addy), Lance Reddick (Hotel Manager / Charon).

American action movies have, unfortunately, become all about rapid fire editing, and shaky handheld camera work that emphasis visceral energy over coherence. If you are a director like Paul Greengrass, or Michael Bay on his best day, than this can actually be effective. But most directors don’t seem to know how to use this style well – so what happens in the action sequences is that become so tightly editing that everything becomes confusing to me – I have no idea what is really going on. I have always preferred Hong Kong style action – the type of thing practiced by John Woo in the 1980s and 1990s, or which Johnnie To does now. Even if Woo and To have a lot of differences in their style, the one thing they do share is that they let action sequences play out at length – they don’t favor the rapid fire editing to create false suspense or energy. The best thing about John Wick is that first time directors - David Leitch & Chad Stahelski  - allow the action sequences to play out a little bit longer than most action movies made in America today. The action in the movie is clean, crisp, bold and genuinely exciting.

The plot of the movie is typical revenge movie stuff. The newly widowed title character (Keanu Reeves) is grieving for his beloved wife, when the doorbell rings – and a dog is delivered – a last gift from his wife. The dog isn’t around very long though – the spoiled son of a Russian mobster wants Wick’s car – but he will not sell, so he and his goons visit Wick, steal the car, and kill the dog. What this spoiled brat doesn’t know is who Wick was in his former life – the deadliest assassin who ever worked for his father (Michael Nyqvist). Now, of course, Wick wants vengeance – and the Russian mob boss will stop at nothing to protect his son.

In broad strokes, there is not much difference between the story of John Wick and that of a film like Taken (or its sequel). I wasn’t a fan of either of the Taken movies – mainly because they were they were ridiculous, but took themselves way too seriously. That is a mistake that John Wick doesn’t make – the directors know they are making a goofy revenge action film from the start, and they never pretend otherwise. Reeves also knows this, and he rips into his role with a certain grim glee (if that makes any sense), relishing his violent action sequences, which he is expert at. The two directors of the film have mainly been stuntmen in the past – and they certainly want to show off what they are best at – and the hand-to-hand combat and gunfight scenes are probably the best I have seen in a movie this year. The rest of the cast get on the same wavelength of Reeves, and have a blast with their roles.

There is nothing original about John Wick – but there really doesn’t have to be. It knows precisely what it is, and goes for broke from the first scene to the last. It’s a hell of good time at the movies – a guilty pleasure to be sure, but a great one at that.