Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) are called in to save the world when super villain Brixton (Idris Elba) tries to steal a virus from M.I.6 Agent Hattie (Vanessa Kirby).

Hobbs and Shaw is the first spin off for the huge money spinning Fast & Furious franchise and the ninth film overall. It features the series most likeable stars with the best action credentials in Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham and it delivers exactly what you expect.

I am constantly in awe of the Fast franchise. The first four films were dire street racing focused films before Dwayne Johnson’s introduction morphed it into an action series and injected lots of fun. The films now make billions of dollars and are pulling in cameos and recurring roles from huge stars. Whilst I described Fast & Furious 8 as more of a Bond film this spin off is essentially a superhero film.

Idris Elba’s self proclaimed “bad guy” Brixton is a cybernetically enhanced villain with a transforming motorcycle and his super strength is only matched by Hobbs and Shaw’s physics defying action skills. If that isn’t as close to the Marvel cinematic universe for you as you would like then Hobbs performs a feat recently performed by Captain America and the film has mid and end credits stings!

It features classic Fast & Furious styles. If you want themes of family and people calling each other “brother” you will not be disappointed. If you want cool slow motion played to loud hip hop music they have you covered. There is even the de facto scantily clad women in a few scenes for no apparent reason. What lifts it slightly though is the banter between the two main characters and the constant references to how differently they go about their business. Johnson and Statham seem in on the joke in a way that the cast of the main series films do not.

The director here is David Leitch. The man behind John Wick, Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2. As a result I was oddly disappointed with the action on display. I didn’t feel it was nearly as outlandish as the recent Fast films and the editing features the normal Hollywood quick cut method that can sometimes induce headaches. So whilst the action sequences are more serviceable Leitch does prove his worth with the banter between the stars and the cameos he has managed to secure for the film. It also oddly feels like Mission Impossible 2 thanks to the killer virus, the motorcycle chases and the Southern Hemisphere ending.

Cheesy, loud and dumb. But damn that motorcycle is cool and if you don’t take it seriously (at this point I’m really not sure how you could) it’s a lot of fun.