Good ol’ reliable Jason Statham. Whilst he may not be the most adventurous actor in the world he has created a nice little niche for himself as one of the few bona fide action stars not yet eligible to collect a pension. Although I can’t say all of his films are good he does at least try his best. Safe is arguably his best film in a good while, it might not be an action classic but it is certainly better than most modern Hollywood examples.

The plot is rather convoluted featuring a turf war between Triads, Russian gangsters and corrupt police officers and a number combination locked away inside a little girl’s head. Thankfully the plot rarely gets in…

Film #23 of No Rewatch November

From everything I had seen of this movie, I definitely wasn't expecting it to be one of the best action films of the year, second only to Dredd.

The film is set in New York City and that means that there are tons and tons of crowd scenes in this. And, these aren't just your regular old crowd scenes, these are big old shoot out crowd scenes that are chaotic, but not confusing. The shoot out in front of the hotel is awesome, as is pretty much every other shoot out in the movie. It is nice to see an action movie that is all about shoot outs, as for some reason this has…

When I go to a Jason Statham movie I have specific expectations: I want action, a few fights, a good car chase, maybe a touching moment showing his soft side and some snappy dialogue. A cohesive storyline is always a nice bonus. I am happy to say, “Safe” lived up to my expectations and I enjoyed the movie. Statham plays a good guy in despair due to the circumstances forced on him by the bad guys, when he sees a girl in distress. He saves her but really she saves him by giving his life a purpose again. There are lots of bad guys in this one…dirty cops, politicians, triads, Russians… and they all are after the girl and her…

I had absolutely no expectations for this film. If anything, I expected Transporter 4, which it sorta is on some level. I came out really liking this. Sure it in't without its problems. Most of which you'd expect in the average action film (some bad acting, cheesy dialogue, one suspicious forced product placement scene) but I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. For one thing, some actors do a surprisingly really good job, especially Statham. There's no denying he has the perfect intensity and physique for an action star, but he's a better actor than people give him credit for. If you don't believe me just look at Snatch, Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels, or even…

Safe (2012)
Boaz Yakin
C+

Remarkably propulsive and artfully sparse at the outset; smashing from a classroom in rural China to the chaotic streets of New York City and a steel cage MMA match in New Jersey, moving forward and backward in time on parallel narrative tracks, hinting that this wasn’t simply going to be another shitty Jason Statham film. Arrives at a reasonably clever explanation for the typical lone wolf, don’t let anyone get close to you, behavior which is commonplace in this sort of film as well as a non-violent mode of operation which was genuinely startling in this context. Watching Statham literally bum around for forty minutes, suffering in silence while various corrupt cops and Russian mobsters…