British action star Jason Statham has truly cornered the market on being… Jason Statham.  By now, fans know exactly what to expect, and Statham’s new high-octane thriller delivers exactly that.

In Safe, Statham plays ex-New York cop – yes, he actually attempts an American accent – who finds a form of redemption by protecting a young Chinese girl from not only the Russian Mafia but also the Chinese Mafia, the NYPD, the chief of police and the mayor of New York. They’re all bad, really bad. The odds are against him, but can he beat them?  You bet… he’s Jason Statham.

There’s not a lot to say about Safe that will matter to Statham’s legion of fans.  The violent action kicks in from scene one and ends on the final fade out; in other words, the film literally never stops, and it’s exhausting.  Yet I have to admit; it’s fun in a brain-dead sort of way.  And it all has to do with Statham himself who grounds the film in a way that was never thought possible when his career began back in 1999 as part of the Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels ensemble, even if his husky snarl of an American accent in Safe comes by way of the East End of London.

Like most violent films out of Hollywood these days, the violence is shot and edited in dazzling quick bursts.  I’m sure director Boaz Yakin sees this as putting the audience in the middle of the action, but my theory is that this newer generation of directors has no clue how to shoot it otherwise.  Hand-held cameras and ultra-fast music video styled edits certainly create the feeling of chaos, but the trick is to shoot the action while maintaining the ability to actually see what’s happening.  This now appears to be a lost art.

In the world of Safe every character is ridiculously corrupted with the exception of Statham’s character and the little Chinese girl he’s trying to protect.  These aren’t just bad people, these are way over-the-top evil, plus there are so many of them.  When each adrenaline addled sequence takes off, just like a video game – which is presumably the inspiration for these sequences – there’s a never ending supply of characterless henchmen who seem to appear out of nowhere just for Statham to kick, maim, stab or kill.  There’s never an opportunity to see where anyone is in relation to each other so there’s no way to determine if the sequence is well choreographed or not, it just explodes in one big chaotic rush before you.

Enjoy Safe for what it is, ninety minutes of carnage though surprisingly bloodless with a plot that really doesn’t matter and a leading man with such huge appeal he can overcome his acting limitations by simply growling lines like, “I’ve been in restaurants all night.  All I got served was lead.”  Classic Statham dialog.

 MPAA Rating:  R      Length:  95 minutes   Overall Rating:  6 (out of 10)