THE ROCK — “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” isn’t what I’d call beautiful cinema, but I will call it a whole lot of fun.

It’s absurd, over-the-top and borderline stupid — and that’s what makes it so wonderful. Go in expecting to see ridiculous action sequences, cheesy one-liners, and some well-choreographed fight scenes and you’ll have a ball.

See Dave Clyde’s review to read more about the movie. I’m here to let you know what you can expect to see in “Hobbs & Shaw” so you can make some educated decisions about letting your kids see the film, or if you want to see it yourself.

I have only seen the first “The Fast and the Furious” movie and about three quarters of “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” on cable, so I don’t have much to compare this new one to and can't say if it’s on par, below or above the normal content level of the other films in the franchise.

What I can tell you is that I was a little surprised by some of the content in the film.

I am not here to tell you what is or is not appropriate for you or your kids; only you can make that decision. This review is to let you know what is in “Hobbs & Shaw” and then leave the decision-making up to you.

Sexuality

While there is no actual sex in the movie, there are a lot of innuendos that are used to boast, flirt or make fun of people. It seems the writers threw the subtlety out the window with some of the comments and made them fairly graphic.

This movie also features a cast of very fit people (both men and women), and it likes to show that off in the form of lots of shirtless guys and several scenes with women in low-cut tops or short shorts.

One scene, in particular, jumps between two different bars — one in which women are dressed in tight-fitting and revealing clothes, and the other with women in some kind of futuristic-looking outfits that reveal a lot of skin.

I’d say the movie earned its PG-13 rating in this area with the sexual language and some of the clothing choices.

Violence

Guess what? There is a lot of violence. Surprised? I didn’t think so.

From the get-go, people are getting beat up, blown up, shot, run over, stabbed, thrown out windows, hit by cars and even tattooed across the forehead against their will.

I wouldn’t say any of the violence was graphic, and a lot of the gnarly stuff happens off-screen, but there is no wondering what’s going on. The violence is over-the-top and stylistic and doesn’t feel quite so heartless because of that. Regardless, there are a lot of people dying and getting maimed.

I don’t recall any blood, except in a gag scene toward the end of the film where it’s played for laughs.

Language

I was a bit surprised by the language in this film. Since I haven’t seen the other films in the franchise, I didn’t really have a marker in the sand to let me know what to expect. There is quite a bit of language in “Hobbs & Shaw.”

It would seem to me the filmmakers pushed the language right to the R-rating limit. All the classic curse words — if you will — are all there, and the R-rated word is said at least twice.

Other than those very blatant uses of that word, the cursing is sporadic. But as I mentioned earlier, there is a lot of innuendo that plays into the language as well.

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Intensity

The movie can get fairly intense and there are some moments that might be a bit scary for some audiences.

This movie doesn’t take itself too seriously; and even though the heroes are put in impossible situations, you never worry about them too much. The main villain could be a little scary for some young audiences, considering he seems to be unstoppable and brutal.

Conclusion

I know there are “hard-R-rated films,” that don't hold back on adult content, but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard someone refer to a film as a “hard PG-13 film.” Still, I'm going to say “Hobbs & Shaw” is a hard PG-13. The movie definitely takes some liberties and tries to push that rating to the limit at times.

I think the PG-13 rating is a fair rating — an R-rating would have been a bit much, but it tows that line a fair amount.

“Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” is rated PG-13 for prolonged sequences of action and violence, suggestive material and some strong language.

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