Hobbs & Shaw

The first spinoff in the Fast and Furious franchise, Hobbs & Shaw centers around Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham's characters and thus takes focus out of race cars and heist tropes and more on end of the world and spy fiction stories. Despite this change of focus and story, this film still keeps the over the top nature that the previous entries have been known for. The titular characters have to stop a tech obsessed and enhanced terrorist from unleashing a deadly virus that would wipe out millions of people. Shaw gets involved due to his sister injecting herself with the virus and thus has only a few days before it's activated inside of her, with Hobbs being assigned due to his past with the Shaw family. Right from the beginning, the film pulls no punches at showing us how different this spinoff is from the rest of the series as Idris Elba plays a villain who is super strong, very durable, and can see the many variables that could happen in a fight with his enhanced eyes. With David Leitch directing, the action scenes are very well done and the choreography is pulled off just as smoothly as his previous works. With a run time of about two hours and fifteen minutes, Hobbs & Shaw tries to fit in way too much in it and not all of it goes smoothly as the pacing is never exact. The comedy does work, but often tries to put in way too much that it can get old at times and ruin some moments. Not only do Johnson and Statham give great performances that enhance their competitive chemistry, but everyone else involved gives it their all, whether it's Elba as the villain, Vanessa Kirby as Shaw's sister, or even the small role that Helen Mirren provides. The story is so over the top and filled with so much absurdity that you don't always mind when it doesn't make sense. By far, the highlight of the film is the final action scene that takes place in Samoa wherein Johnson's Luke gets help from his family to fight the villains. Managing to expand on a franchise that began in 2001, Hobbs & Shaw is a fun extravaganza that while great to watch has very obvious flaws layered throughout its over the top nature. Over all: 99%

2019 top list so far:
1. Avengers: Endgame

2. Toy Story 4

3. Shazam!

4. Spider-Man: Far From Home

5. Rocketman

6. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

7. John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum

8. Godzilla: King of the Monsters

9. Once Upon a Time In Hollywood

10. Hobbs & Shaw

11. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

12. Us

13. Aladdin 2019

14. Pokemon Detective Pikachu

15. Captain Marvel

16. The Lion King 2019

17. Yesterday

18. Pet Sematary 2019

19. The Upside

20. Dark Phoenix

21. Cold Pursuit

22. Glass