- a spinoff in the long-running car-chase movie franchise, fast & furious presents: hobbs & shaw, is coming, several months ahead of the upcoming fast & furious 9.
- idris elba and helen mirren are interesting additions to the mix, as is a mclaren 720s.
- the movie is in theaters starting august 2.
the fabulously successful fast & furious movie franchise will launch its first spinoff on august 2. the new movie is called fast & furious presents: hobbs & shaw. it stars two of fast's big stars, former wwe wrestler dwayne "the rock" johnson (luke hobbs) and jason statham (deckerd shaw). if you like beat-'em-up, blow-'em-up, shoot-'em-up action movies where the stars say funny things to each other while staring certain death in the face, you'll love this one.
according to movie site imdb, "lawman luke hobbs and outcast deckerd shaw form an unlikely alliance when a cyber-genetically enhanced villain threatens the future of humanity." that rascally villain is played by the superbly talented idris elba, star of the brilliant british detective series luther. helen mirren returns to the franchise, playing statham's mother.
as shown in the string of trailers for the new flick, it also stars a mclaren 720s and a whole lot of postapocalyptic-looking utility vehicles. the car was present at the hobbs & shaw premiere.
while much of the movie depends on hollywood-style computer-generated imagery to make the fantastic, superhuman stunts possible, the one thing that needs no computational enhancement is the real-life performance of the mclaren. beyond the silver screen, on real roads, its capabilities are unearthly. a 720s will scorch to 60 mph in just 2.7 seconds, blow through a quarter-mile in 10.2 seconds at 145 mph, and will reach a claimed top speed of 212 mph. we've driven them extensively and can tell you they accomplish all that with uncanny grace.
"we're gonna need cars and guns," hobbs declares in one of the trailers. the two protagonists and their crew proceed to do things with said vehicles and weapons that aren't remotely possible in reality but are highly entertaining nonetheless.