Tag Archives: Jason Statham

Movie review: ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ leaves ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise in dust

“Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” (PG-13)

With the “Fast & Furious” franchise seemingly in the rearview mirror, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham are off roaring to bigger and better things with “Hobbs & Shaw,” an outrageously entertaining spinoff movie featuring the friendly adversaries from the most recent chapters in the Vin Diesel film series.

“Hobbs & Shaw” gives the exact amount of time to Johnson’s Luke Hobbs and Statham’s Deckard Shaw to begin the film by inventively splitting the screen and their scenes in two, where they go about their morning routines, which wildly differ. Eventually, though, the lawman Hobbs’ and the reformed bad guy Shaw’s paths converge, as they’re both asked by their countries’ intelligence services to recover a programmable virus being carried by a lethal MI-6 agent. The stakes are raised when the MI-G agent turns out being Shaw’s estranged sister, Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), and her revelation that he had the virus – protected by capsules – injected into her bloodstream.

Interview: David Leitch talks “Deadpool 2”

Making matters worse, a secret organization hell-bent on winnowing out the weaker of the human species on Earth sends the technologically enhanced super soldier Brixton (Idris Elba) to recover the virus, and Hobbs and Shaw quickly find out that there’s little they can do to stop him. That’s bad news if he gets his hands on the virus, since it will kill millions if it’s unleashed into the world.


AUDIO: Tim reviews “Hobbs and Shaw” with Tom Barnard on “The KQ Morning Show” on KQRS-FM. Segment brought to you by Michael Bryant and Bradshaw & Bryant.

Yes, “Hobbs and Shaw” is chockfull of the same over-the-top action and doomsday scenarios that turned the “Fast & Furious” movies into a multibillion franchise, but instead of being a big, loud and dumb movie franchise that’s lost its sense of humor with its last outing, “Hobbs & Shaw” captures perfectly the chemistry that was clearly evident between Johnson and Statham in the “The Fate of the Furious.” Plus, with “Deadpool 2” director David Leitch at the helm, the film finds a way to balance the excessive crash, boom, bang with several laugh-out-loud funny moments humor throughout, making “Hobbs & Shaw” big loud and smart, and even throwing in a bit of science fiction into the plot, to boot.

Even better, Leitch employed a couple brilliant big star cameos in the film to amp up the funny, even though the film, truthfully, already had enough star power with an impressive Kirby and charismatic Elba in sizable roles, and the always delightful Helen Mirren reprising her kick-ass role from “The Fate of the Furious” as the Shaw family matriarch.

Clearly the brightest stars in “Hobbs & Shaw,” though, are Johnson and Statham, who clearly having a ball throughout the movie (there were no reports of Johnson calling anybody in the film a “candyass,” err, Vin Diesel). Johnson is especially notable because it’s clear he’s in his element, a place he hasn’t been in the underwhelming action pictures “Rampage” and “Skyscraper.” It just goes to show that a performer, once again, is only as good as their script, and even more to their benefit, is a skilled filmmaker like Leitch and a buddy movie partner like Statham.

Universal Pictures

In comparison to any of the chapters in the franchise that launched it, because of the camaraderie of the cast and clockwork precision of Leitch and his crew of filmmakers, “Hobbs & Shaw” doesn’t even feel like a “Fast & Furious” film. That’s a good thing because honestly, the “Fast” films feel like they’ve become a game of one-upmanship between cast members, and the mandate has been put on the directors to come up with new and more ridiculous ways of topping the action of the film before it.

With “Hobbs & Shaw,” as Leitch has proven before – first as the co-director of “John Wick” and again on “Deadpool 2” – the goal of the movie is to make it as entertaining as possible without taking itself too seriously. And while we already know the characters (even though nothing is lost by not seeing the previous “Fast” movies), “Hobbs & Shaw” in an odd sort of way feels new, refreshing and fun – the way summer popcorn movies should be.

Lammometer: 9 (out of 10)

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for “The KQ92 Morning Show,”  WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere. On TV, Tim has made hundreds of guest appearances on “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC).

Copyright 2019 DirectConversations.com

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Movie review: ‘The Meg’ is outrageous but entertaining shark tale

“The Meg” (PG-13)

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, “The Meg” has surfaced, a whale of a shark movie tale that’s outrageously entertaining from start to finish. Is it over-the-top ridiculous? Absolutely – it is a giant shark movie after all. The good thing is, star Jason Statham and director Jon Turtletaub know it, and because the film doesn’t take itself too seriously, “The Meg” makes, for the lack of better words, a huge splash.

“The Meg” is short for the Megladon, a prehistoric shark that’s 75 feet long that inhabits the bottom of the ocean. The film follows a deep-sea expedition that encounters the Meg, which following a rescue mission by Jonas Taylor (Statham) finds a way to swim to the ocean’s surface to devour everything living thing in sight with it sights set on a popular beach.


Listen to Tim’s review of “The Meg” and more on the “Paul and Jordana Show” on WCCO-AM Radio. Segment begins 6:30 minutes in.

With playful homages to Steven Spielberg’s classic “Jaws” woven throughout, “The Meg” is driven by intensity and occasional gore, which for queasy members of the audience is limited by the film’s PG-13 rating. And while the film has scary scenes, no doubt, it hardly could be considered a horror film, and in fact, it has a surprisingly light tone despite an escalating body count. “The Meg” can chalk its lighter tone up to its fine dose of humor – some of it is intentional and some of it because of its self-aware ridiculous action scenes – which Statham is obviously familiar with because of his prior “Fast and Furious” movies.

While the monster shark is clearly the star of “The Meg,” the film has a great supporting cast, from Rainn Wilson (who mostly plays it straight) as a billionaire who funds the expedition to Robert Taylor (the star of “Longmire”) as the expedition’s doctor who has a contentious past with Jonas; and the always dependable Cliff Curtis as one of the expedition’s crew to Ruby Rose as a computer techie. The Chinese co-production also features the stunning Bingbing Li as one of the expedition’s scientists and Winston Chau has the leader of the crew.

A movie that’s bound to be roasted by highbrow moviegoers and critics, the best way to enjoy “The Meg” is to simply sit back and enjoy the summer movie popcorn action since the film is not brain surgery, and it knows it. Inadvertently, “The Meg” is the sort of crowd-pleasing movie the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences apparently had in mind before it jumped the shark this week and announced its new “Best Popular Film” Oscars category … a move that’s already come back to (shark) bite the AMPAS governing body in the arse.

Lammometer: 8 (out of 10)

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.

Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com

Tim Burton Book 2
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Movie review: ‘The Fate of the Furious’ way too serious

“The Fate of the Furious” (PG-13)

While it’s not a total spinout, “The Fate of the Furious” – the eighth film in the seemingly endless “Fast and Furious” franchise – seems to have lost its way following the blockbuster worldwide success of “Furious 7.” After an entertaining 10-minute race scene to kick off the film, “The Fate of the Furious” quickly loses the type of self-aware sense of humor that made the last film such a joy; and remains stuck in neutral with a formulaic action movie plot until it miraculously pulls itself out a funk for the third act of the movie.

Diesel is back for his sixth “Furious” film as Dominic Toretto, the cocksure street racer who has evolved over the film series into the leader of a band of international mercenaries whose jobs often find them trying to save the world from disaster. But when Dom is coerced by notorious super hacker Cipher (Theron) to go rogue, he’s forced to turn against his crew in order to secure an EMP device that has the power to shut down a major city and turn the scene into complete chaos. And that’s not all …

Convinced that Dom is taking commands against his will, the crew (including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and Michelle Rodriguez – whose Letty is now married to Dominic) takes up an offer from government shade Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) and his new right hand, dubbed “Little Nobody” (Scott Eastwood, who appears to be filling the void left by late Paul Walker) to recover the EMP and other potential weapons of mass destruction to clean their crime-riddled slates.

While its far inferior to “Furious 7,” “The Fate of the Furious” isn’t a bad movie – the action in the final third alone will give audience members what they’re looking for with subplot that involved a Russian nuclear submarine. Thankfully stars like Johnson, Jason Statham, Russell and Helen Mirren (who sadly appears for about 5 minutes in a pair of scenes) didn’t wait that long to let you know they’re in the joke.

On the flip side, Vin Diesel and the film’s new villain, played by Charlize Theron, are trying to play it straight throughout  the film; proving that even Oscar winners can’t act their way out of horrific dialogue.


Listen to Tim’s review of “The Fate of the Furious” with Tom Barnard on “The KQ Morning Show.”

A little sense of humor clearly would have gone a long way, and while Diesel attempts to charm his way through the opening scene, playing it straight for most of the way exposes all of the actor’s weaknesses (mainly, that he only knows how to play one type of character – a wiseass tough guy) and he hits a low point as he barely squeezes out a couple crocodile tears.

Theron’s turn is almost more painful to watch, though, as her over-the-top madwoman questing world domination borders on a mustache-twitching villain that revels in evil. Theron, like everybody else in “Furious 7” should have been reveling in the ridiculousness of what the franchise it has become. It’s too bad, because Theron has proven otherwise that she’s an extremely talented actress.

True, no amount of criticism will stop “The Fate of the Furious” from being another worldwide blockbuster (“Furious 7” grossed $1.5 billion worldwide two years ago) out of the gate, but the shift in gears to a semi-serious film (“The Fate of the Serious”?) will no doubt be a drag on the long term prospects of the box office and the films that come after it.

Lammometer: 6 (out of 10)