Add an “e” and “Hobbs & Shaw” might have been
a time-traveling thriller about playwright George
Bernard Shaw and 17th century philosopher
Thomas Hobbes.
Tantalizing as such a pairing may have been to
the makers of “Fast & Furious,” they have instead
opted to, in the franchise’s first spinoff, combine
two of the series’ supporting standouts, Dwayne
Johnson’s U.S. government agent Luke Hobbs
and Jason Statham’s former British agent
Deckard Shaw, for another ballet of Buicks and
bullets. Probably a wise choice. It’s difficult to
imagine the writer of “Pygmalion” careening
down the side of a skyscraper in hot pursuit of
Idris Elba.