By Matthew Battles
What happens when you take two gangs, some corrupt cops, stick them in New York City and throw in some action-film cliches? You get Safe. A film which stars Jason Statham and... That’s actually it.
What happens when you take two gangs, some corrupt cops, stick them in New York City and throw in some action-film cliches? You get Safe. A film which stars Jason Statham and... That’s actually it.
Statham plays Luke Wright, a former special-ops cop-thing (the film was pretty vague on the details) who became a cage-fighter, accidentally putting his opponent in a coma when he was supposed to take the fall. In retaliation, the Russian mobsters who’d placed a bet on him killed his wife and then told him that anyone he ever spoke to again would also end up dead... So Statham becomes a bum. Trailing the streets of NYC for a year before planning to commit suicide in the subway.
That’s when he sees a little terrified Chinese girl, Mai, being pursued by Chinese mobsters. Statham, looking in great shape considering he hasn’t worked out in a year, batters the gangsters to death before taking off with Mai. Turns out that Mai is a memory genius and was given the code to a safe containing a large sum of money.
So, Statham finds himself playing an obscure game of hot-potato, fighting off Russians, Chinese and crooked cops all intent on getting their hands on Mai to gain access to the money in the safe.
That’s when he sees a little terrified Chinese girl, Mai, being pursued by Chinese mobsters. Statham, looking in great shape considering he hasn’t worked out in a year, batters the gangsters to death before taking off with Mai. Turns out that Mai is a memory genius and was given the code to a safe containing a large sum of money.
So, Statham finds himself playing an obscure game of hot-potato, fighting off Russians, Chinese and crooked cops all intent on getting their hands on Mai to gain access to the money in the safe.
The film had potential to be something really quite special. However the script was dire. Some of the dialogue was so poor it had generated laughter. There were parts of the film that didn’t quite make sense - like Statham’s character suddenly being able to speak Russian without any previous signs of this skill and dangerous gangster not putting a code-lock on his iPhone. The only decent actor in the film was Statham.
With all the obvious twists and turns a typical brainless action movie has we’re taken through a series of action cliches such as climbing on trains, car-chases and those slow ‘man walks’ we get to the final confrontation, you know, the bit where two guys are meant to fight hand-to-hand? And they pull a Transporter... Oh dear. The whole film feels jagged, rushed in places (and not in the adrenaline surging good way) and alarmingly slow in others.
With all the obvious twists and turns a typical brainless action movie has we’re taken through a series of action cliches such as climbing on trains, car-chases and those slow ‘man walks’ we get to the final confrontation, you know, the bit where two guys are meant to fight hand-to-hand? And they pull a Transporter... Oh dear. The whole film feels jagged, rushed in places (and not in the adrenaline surging good way) and alarmingly slow in others.
There are one or two good things that can be said this for the film though, the camerawork is actually quite beautiful - although there is a moment where we’re treated to a bridge-cityscape for absolutely no reason - and the fight choreography is extra-brutal, though you do get the ‘compensating for something’ feeling you get when you see middle-aged men in overpriced sports cars.
If you’re a mindless drone who isn’t looking for a film with plot and character, you’ll probably enjoy this. If you’re looking for something with some intelligence behind it, you’ll probably have a pretty good time but you won’t walk away feeling enlightened. As far as ‘save the little kid’ movies go, this one’s no Man on Fire.
If you’re a mindless drone who isn’t looking for a film with plot and character, you’ll probably enjoy this. If you’re looking for something with some intelligence behind it, you’ll probably have a pretty good time but you won’t walk away feeling enlightened. As far as ‘save the little kid’ movies go, this one’s no Man on Fire.
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