Safe

Jason Statham is probably one of the last true action stars we have left working in Hollywood. Too bad a lot of his recent films haven't really shown him off to the best of his abilities. But Safe, a highly effective and brutal little thriller, marks a return to form. This is Statham doing what he does best, in a plot that is just coherent enough for us to follow, but really doesn't matter.

Writer-director Boax Yakin (Remember the Titans) must have had a blast dreaming up this movie, as it's basically one giant "one man vs. the world" plot, with his star fending off mobsters and criminals from just about every corner of the globe. Statham stars as Luke Wright, a former police detective who turned to martial arts cage fighting when that job fell through, due to corruption around him. When we meet Luke, he's penniless and broke. Some Russian mobsters have made his life a living hell after he refused to throw a fight, and now they've murdered his wife, and have threatened to murder anyone he gets close to. He's living a soulless and hopeless existence, and right when he's beginning to contemplate ending it all, he sees a scared little girl on the run from the same gangsters who destroyed his life.

The girl is Mei (Catherine Chan), a 10-year-old math wiz from China with a genius-level brain that can crunch numbers with the same accuracy as a computer. In flashbacks, we see how the head of the Chinese mafia (James Hong) kidnapped her, and forced her to work for them as kind of a human bookkeeper, keeping track of all their businesses, without leaving a detectable paper trail. Mei's latest assignment is to memorize a code that will unlock a safe containing millions of dollars. Now that she has the code in her brain, Mei becomes a sought-after person by just about every slimeball and lowlife in New York. The Russian gangsters try to steal her from the Chinese, wanting the code for themselves. Also thrown into the mix are some crooked New York cops (led by Robert John Burke), and even the corrupt Mayor (Chris Sarandon).

Luke gets involved, vowing to protect the girl from the people after her, since he pretty much has a history with everyone trying to capture and/or kill her. It's at this point that Safe pretty much stops trying to tell a story, and basically turns into one extended action sequence. Fortunately for the audience, it's an incredibly well executed action sequence. The fights in this movie are not only exciting to watch, but quite brutal. We're getting a rush from the action, but we wince at the same time, as a lot of the stuff Luke does to his enemies does look incredibly painful. The movie pulls no punches, and does a great job of cementing Statham as a true action star a lot better than most of his recent films have.

At the center of all the violence and over the top chase scenes is the relationship that builds between Luke and Mei. The movie gives us just enough reason to make us want to see them both get out of this alive, but wisely doesn't slow things down too much. This is not a character-driven film. It's driven by the stunts, and the incredibly well shot action sequences, which are edited in such a way so that we can actually tell what's going on. (A rarity with most action movies, I must sadly confess.) Still, there is some genuine emotion during the few scenes the two heroes get to share together, without having someone shooting at them. The movie feels a bit top-heavy with exposition at first, as the opening half hour is devoted solely to setting up our heroes, and their different situations. But, it does wind up working in the movie's favor, as it helps us cheer for them when they team up.

Safe is a very silly and convoluted movie, but I'll take it any day of the week over a lot of other failed action movies. It knows what it is, and it knows how to deliver on the action that it promises. I'm sure that there will be many who will knock the film for not making a lot of sense, or for its often wooden dialogue. These are not the levels that a movie like this should be judged. Safe is an unapologetic thrill ride movie, and on that level, it worked for me.

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