It’s nearly the end of the year, which means it is time to prepare to get gifts for your loved ones, particularly those who may love watching films. Throughout the year, we have seen many films from various genres ranging from the action blockbuster films like Avengers: Endgame and horror flicks like Midsommar to the animated features like Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and fantasy fun like Aladdin (2019).

Check out this year’s Holiday Geek Gift Guide: Blu-ray & DVD Edition“¦

Movie theater franchises have been adding more and more immersive theater experiences to their screenings: There’s the ever-popular IMAX (in its various forms), AMC has the Dolby Cinema, and Regal Cinemas has launched a few new options with ScreenX and 4DX. I spent the summer checking out cinema chain’s answers to slumping attendance, focusing mainly on what 4DX has to offer.

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
Director: David Leitch
Writer: Chris Morgan, Drew Pearce
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Helen Mirren
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Rated PG-13| Minutes: 136
Release Date: Aug 2, 2019

I am probably not the right person to be reviewing a film from the Fast & Furious franchise. The 2001 original did so little for me that I ignored all the following sequels, even after Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson joined the party in 2011’s Fast Five. The franchise was originally built on a criminal underworld of car racing then evolved into a globetrotting Bond-esque stunt show on steroids forgoing logic, gravity, and physics for utterly ridiculous action set pieces and larger than life actors and characters. Despite not being a fan of the series, I felt compelled to see the spinoff film Hobbs and Shaw due to the undeniable chemistry of the two leads and a vibe that reminded me of some of my favorite silly action films of the 1980s, namely Commando and Tango & Cash.

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
Director: David Leitch
Writer: Chris Morgan, Drew Pearce
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Helen Mirren
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Rated PG-13| Minutes: 136
Release Date: Aug 2, 2019

There’s no denying that the Fast & Furious franchise has been through some crazy things. What first started out as a humble cinematic look at illegal underground street racing has since supped up into a global phenomenon where Dom and his family – a strong theme that courses throughout the franchise – do things like drive cars out of planes in mid-flight or sling torpedos across a large stretch of ice. Oh, there’s also the occasional cars stunts, bone crunching fights, and cheesy one-liners.

But now it’s time for the franchise to venture outside of its wheelhouse with Hobbs & Shaw, the first Fast & Furious spinoff. In it, Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), two people who don’t even belong in the same room together much less be paired up on a mission, work together to save the world from a cyber terrorist organization bent on evolving humanity by augmenting them with their technology and purging out the weak. Are these two incompatible people up to the challenge? Or will they let their egos get in the way? Of course they are, and it’s how they reach that point that can be simultaneously fun and infuriating. My full review here below.

The characters of the Fast and the Furious film franchise has prided themselves as being a part of a family. It doesn’t matter if the skin color is different. But when it comes to family by blood that is a bit of a different story. We will get to see a little bit of that play out in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, the first spinoff of the franchise.

In it, Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is forced to team up with Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) in order to stop Brixton (Idris Elba), an enhanced human, from reclaiming a virus that Shaw’s younger sister (Vanessa Kirby) stole from him. Check out the trailer below.