Safe

Welcome to another episode of Lights....Camera....Popcorn!

Today's review is Safe.

Written and Directed by Boaz Yakin.

Fight Choreography by J.J. "Loco" Perry.

Review #157

MPAA Rating: R for strong violence throughout, and for language.

Runtime: 94 min

Cast

Jason Statham ...Luke Wright

Catherine Chan ...Mei

Robert John Burke ...Captain Wolf

James Hong ...Han Jiao

Anson Mount ...Alex Rosen

Chris Sarandon ...Mayor Tremello

Sándor Técsy ...Emile Docheski

Joseph Sikora ...Vassily Docheski

Reggie Lee ...Quan Chang


Jason Statham has had a interesting career. He first hit it big thanks to Guy Ritchie and 2 little films you may have heard called Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Statham displayed some pretty decent acting chops in those films. Particularly in Snatch since he was the driving force. What we didn't know was that Statham is also pretty good when it comes to action as well. He's a martial artist and an acrobat so those talents were put to use in other films that seemed more marketable for him as the stand alone star. Films like the Transporter series though not earth shattering action films. Cemented Statham's well earned reputation as a bankable action star. The problem of course which happens to all action stars is that the films are so vanilla and recycled that nobody really cares for them because we've all seen them before. Safe falls into this category.

But it's not Statham's fault.

Plot 

A former elite agent takes on a two-tier mission: rescue a Chinese girl who has been abducted by the Triads, then use a highly desired safe combination to outwit the Russian Mafia, corrupt NYC officials, and the Triads themselves.

Safe's first problem and it's a big one is that it gets too complicated. Here's a quick movie quiz. Most of you have seen Spiderman 3. Why is that movie so despised by fans and critics? The answer is simple. Sam Raimi made it way too complicated by giving Spiderman three villains to fight. It was entirely way too much for one hero to handle. I guarantee that if you take The Sandman away from Spiderman 3 all together you have a much better film. This is the issue that Safe falls victim to. Luke has to hide all over NY with this girl trying to evade the Chinese triads, Russian mafia and corrupt cops who are all after the girl for different purposes.

Now I'm going to sound like I'm contradicting myself but bear with me. Despite the confusing criminal collaboration. The premise actually made sense. The problem was in the overall presentation and execution. Over the course of the film you get little glimpses and hints into Luke's backstory until you finally get this long winded exposition scene that fleshes out how much of a bad ass Luke actually is. Now normally that wouldn't be such a big deal in a move like this. Except this scene takes place well after the fact that Luke establishes that he's a bad ass. At this point we didn't need to know any specifics. We have already seen his ingenuity and fighting ability. Plus the scene is just way too by the book for action movies of this kind to even make you think you're seeing something different. It's too bad because Safe was playing pretty well up until that point.

Now on to the action. It was not bad I have to say. I am very familiar with J.J. "Loco" Perry's work. He's the fight choreographer for this film. He was once a member of Sammo Hung's stunt team in Hong Kong. He later went on to choreograph some straight to DVD martial arts films. Most notably Undisputed 2 with Michael Jai White. The fights in that move were intricately choreographed and showcased some very nice sequences mixed in with some hardcore brutality. Perry ratchets up the brutality in Safe. A lot of the combat involves gun play but the few occasions Statham let's loose with his fists.

They kick some major ass.

The fights are fast paced and don't give you a chance to breathe. There was even some very clever and creative camera work when it came down to some of the car chases. Yakin chose to not cut away during some of the action when the car chases was going on. It was a nice change of pace and a well designed camera moves that let the sequences have a natural feel.

Statham's performance was pretty by the book for this kind of film. He did add some heart to it when it came to protecting Mei who by the way was as cute as can be. I really enjoyed her performance. She played the scared little girl that was being threatened to use her amazing gift. Yet in the midst of her being controlled, she knew when to play the cards that gave her the upper hand against the by the numbers stupid gangsters.

Overall, Safe was a straight up and down run of the mill action film that tried to be too ambitious with it's story. It almost worked but there was too much explanation when there wasn't any need for it.

On the 5 star scale. Safe gets 2 stars. With a "Netflix It"recommendation.

That's a wrap for today. Up next is The Avengers. Oh man was this movie awesome!

Until Next Episode....I'll Save You A Seat!

"D"