There are a lot of things to love about watching the Rock, Statham, and Idris trading shots on screen, and you don’t have to be a Fast and the Furious franchise fan to enjoy Hobbs and Shaw, but it definitely helps.

I’m not gonna lie, I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. It’s loud, it’s abrasive, it’s imaginative, and it’s definitely a fast and furious way to extend a movie franchise that definitely needs a new lease on life.

And this movie is like a breath of fresh air, bringing along some really fun callbacks to the series that started it all, aided by two of the finest surprise stunt casting moves I’ve ever encountered. If you haven’t seen Fast and the Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, and want to be surprised, turn back now and only return when you’ve experienced all the hilarity and high stakes action. You won’t regret it.

Okay, now that we’ve got all that out of the way, let’s talk about those more-than-cameos. Ryan Reynolds was a hell of a surprise, and a seriously fantastic one at that. He and the Rock are a delightful team to watch on screen together, especially when Reynolds has almost all the dialogue and plays a royal pain in Johnson’s character’s ass.

The second, and completely brilliant actor to unexpectedly pop up was Kevin Hart. His voice was pretty much the last thing I expected to hear chime in on that airplane, but man-oh-man was it a wonderful surprise. He set himself up to be a part of this team sometime in the distant future, probably in an act of desperation at what could be their final hour (think Benji in the Mission Impossible series or Louis Tully in the original Ghostbusters). I sincerely hope that both Reynolds and Hart continue to appear in any movies this franchise has in its future, simply because I love what they bring to the table.

Okay, let’s get back to the three behemoth personalities that give this movie it’s identity. Hobbs and Shaw have showed down before, first appearing in Furious 7 back in 2015, but now they must find a way to work together, or at least mildly tolerate each other’s presence while trying to save the world.

Johnson and Statham are exactly what you want them to be here. Their insults are creative and impressively vulgar half the time, they both believe themselves to be the superior threat, and neither of them ever misses an opportunity to make the other entirely miserable. They both have action sequences that impress and astound, and both are just a lot of fun to watch. They create a solid foundation which allows everyone else, including the movie’s villain, to play in all the ways.

And let’s talk about the movie’s villain for a second. Idris Elba plays Brixton, a former MI6 operative that Statham’s Shaw had to eliminate due to some twisted loyalties or, you know, the normal spy mumbo jumbo. Anyway, dude definitely got a bullet to the brain and two to the heart, just like MI6 taught them, so Shaw is more than a little surprised to see him alive and well. We quickly learn that all of that is thanks to a company (syndicate?) called Eteon, who tricked him out with all sorts of metal and artificial body parts, effectively turning him into the ultimate super soldier. Oh, and they gave him the coolest bike ever, too. It quite literally follows him around like a puppy, and will ride all by itself to his side at Brixton’s beck and call.

Elba’s Brixton is definitely the embodiment of the villain in Hobbs and Shaw, but the true villain is Eteon. They are only using him as a tool to their ends, and it’s quite apparent that they don’t view him as any more than that when he is decommissioned after failing to complete his objective. It’s important to note that Brixton wasn’t truly killed, just shut down by Eteon, after which he tumbled off a cliff into the sea surrounding Samoa. I’m calling his return to the franchise two or three movies from now, with a lot of upgrades, and with at least one mention of him rising from the dead just like Superman or something like that. It’s totally gonna happen.

The absolutely stand-out perfomer in this movie, though, isn’t any of the men we’ve talked about so far. Vanessa Kirby as Hattie Shaw steals every scene she’s in. She’s definitely graduated from being a pawn of the action (like her role in last summer’s Mission Impossible: Fallout) to being a out-and-out player, getting some of the coolest and most inventive action scenes in Hobbs and Shaw. To be completely honest, I would be happy to see the next film titled Hobbs and Shaw and Shaw or something and fully upgrade her to one of the series’ bonafide stars. This movie would definitely not be the same without her and I was absolutely enthralled with each and every opportunity I got to see her do her thing.

All that said, Hobbs and Shaw is a great trip to the movies. It’s full of all the best action, explosions, drama, and fun you could want, and banks hard on the themes of heart and family that Fast and Furious movies have always been proud to celebrate. Fans of the previous franchise will find lots to be excited about, especially in the later action sequences in the movie which do not forget the inter-engine shots and the over-the-top action scenes that became synonymous with Fast and the Furious. I would definitely go again, if only just to see if I missed any details while taking in all the crazy, delightful action. And for the jokes, too.