Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

Director: David Leitch

Notable Cast: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby

The Fast & Furious films have basically settled into being a superhero franchise that takes place in a universe where cars are a superpower. Ever since Fast Five I have said and believed this. It’s not even an insult to me. I love superhero cinema, I love cars, and I love The Fast and The Furious… which is why Hobbs & Shaw, the first F&F spin-off, surprises me with how well it worked. I’m a total mark for this franchise already, so I went in expecting to like this, but I was pleasantly surprised anyway when I came away realizing that, furthering my metaphor, Hobbs & Shaw is what a Bond or Mission Impossible-like spy plot taking place in a superhero universe where cars are a superpower would look like. This movie has cracked the formula that xXx wanted to so badly, and I hope this sub-franchise really gets some legs under it. One or two more iterations, and we may actually get a modern Goldfinger. Or at least a post-modern one.

Atomic Blonde (2017)

Director: David Leitch

Notable Cast: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Til Schweiger, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella, Toby Jones, Bill Skarsgard, Sam Hargrave

It wasn’t that long ago that the action genre got a well-deserved injection in the mainstream consciousness from the first Taken film. It hit all the usual action tropes, but it struck a chord with audiences who bought into it with vigor. This same burst happened again with John Wick a few years ago, but this time it was less about fine tuning the action film style that was popular at the time and more about using style, simplicity, and an old school approach that made the connection with audiences. Call it what you will, but action right now is being propelled by the ‘John Wick Effect’ which itself was still riding a bit on the Taken and Bourne momentum. It has launched the creative careers of the members of 87 Eleven and made a stylistic impact. So when the two directors of John Wick decided to go their separate ways, it only meant that fans would get more. From Chad Stahelski we got the just as impressive John Wick: Chapter 2 and from David Leitch we got the graphic novel based film, Atomic Blonde. Now, the reason this brief recap of the events leading to Atomic Blonde is important is that it’s the measuring stick that this film will judged and it’s one of the reasons that it ultimately feels like more of a mixed effort. Atomic Blonde features some dynamic visuals, a fun classic action concept, and the usual impressive action, but it also suffers from one key problem: forced narrative, leaving the film feeling a bit more uneven than initially expected.