Not a safe bet

 

 

Englishman Jason Statham is the last of the old-school Hollywood action heroes. But, unlike his poker-faced predecessors Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme, he can express emotions. Before Statham built a career out of breaking limbs, he had flexed his facial muscles in films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. His performance in Safe as Luke Wright, a mixed martial arts fighter whose wife is murdered by the Russian mafia after he wins a rigged fight, is evidence that he is improving, albeit slowly. 
Director Boaz Yakin, however, fails to do justice to Statham's efforts. The lousy opening sequences of Safe cram several story threads. Clumsily edited flashbacks introduce Mei (Catherine Chan, playing a stereotype), a child genius with photographic memory who has escaped her captors. Her mind holds a code so valuable that the Triad, Russian mobsters and corrupt policemen in New York are hot on her heels. At a subway station, Mei meets Wright, who promises to protect her. Bad decision, it turns out, as it draws him back to New York's criminal underbelly and his wife’s killers. Safe, from there, turns too formulaic to be interesting.
The film does offer sublimely violent thrills, the pick of the lot being a brutal, hand-to-hand subway fight. Yakin, however, tests patience when he plumbs the emotions of his characters. Though Statham is remarkable in a close-up shot of his grieving for his dead wife, some of his efforts to widen his range of expressions are painful to watch.
Safe is a letdown for Statham fans of Transporter vintage. He still wears his suits with aplomb, though. 

Safe
Cast: Jason Statham, Catherine Chan
Director: Boaz Yakin
Two stars

This piece was originally published here