Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw"

Kirby, Statham, and Johnson are Shaw, Shaw, and Hobbs.

Yesterday's exciting episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour featured Linda Holmes' triumphant return to the host chair after the triumphant publication of her debut novel. Hooray! In a deleted scene, I asked the panel—my forever Fast & Furious viewing-mate Linda, my sister-from-another-mother Daisy Rosario, and new friend Christina Tucker of the Unfriendly Black Hotties podcast—if I was the only one of use suffering from what I am loath to call "Johnson Fatigue."

Yes, came the three ladies' reply. It's just you. So be it! This was an especially fun episode. My review of Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is right here.

The Ampersands of Time: "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw," reviewed.

Bald Is Beautiul: Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. (Universal)

Look, all of the Fast & Furious movies have stolen their best bits from better movies, but when the new double-ampersand sidebar flick Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw actually had its cyborg villain, Brixton Lorr (Idris Elba) get orders from an unseen superior to try to turn heroes Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) over to the Dark Side, I still managed to be surprised. My NPR review is here.

Shark, Weak: The Meg, reviewed.

They're gonna need a bigger beaker. (Warner Bros.)

Pal-for-Life Glen Weldon did me a solid with that headline. Of all the giant-shark thrillers that've been scaring us out of the water since Jaws invented the summer blockbuster, The Meg, starring the Fast & the Furious franchise's most talented chromedome, is without question the most recent. Here's my NPR review.

Diesel Fumes: The Fate of the Furious, reviewed.

Xander Cage as Dominic Toretto. (Universal)

We all know the inexplicably prolonged Fast & Furious series can't touch Mad Max: Fury Road or even its closer competitor the Mission: Impossible franchise, right? We all know that?

Even by the series' own standards of allegedly intentional badness, the new The Fate of the Furious is a sour lemon. (136 minutes, four good scenes.) Here's my NPR review.