atlasmb
If you are watching a Jason Statham film, you are probably expecting action. "Safe" gives you action in spades--once it gets started. In the opening scenes, there are two consecutive flashbacks that serve no purpose but slow the development of the film. But once the narrative gets going, the action is superior.First of all, there is so much of it. Secondly, the hand-to-hand combat is very convincing--a requirement for any good action film. Lastly, the chase scenes are exciting and well designed.The story involves a battle between three entities--the Russian mob, the Chinese mob, and New York City police. All three are corrupt organizations, and all three want the same thing--to capture a Chinese girl with important information. Statham's character (a former undercover cop) determines to protect the child despite overwhelming odds. The relationship between the two fugitives is critical to the film's story. Statham is up to the challenge, despite his rough, unemotional façade. One is reminded of Schwarzenegger in "Commando" or Statham himself in "Safe". The added emotional content elevates this film above many others of the genre.
Jon Corelis
If you're a fan of action thrillers, the name Jason Statham on a movie tells you pretty much all you need to know: there will be a loner good-bad guy hero who gets involved in a complex criminal or espionage scheme, during the course of which trying to rescue someone or doing a necessary job he fights his way through various locations, dispatching an endless series of villains with his bare hands (and sometimes feet and head too) and various weapons, usually ending up doing the action hero equivalent of riding off into the sunset.Safe follows the formula. The plot here concerns an 11 year old Chinese girl math prodigy who is kidnapped in China by a Triad who want to exploit her amazing ability to remember numbers for their own evil ends; they send her to New York where she draws the additional nefarious attentions of the Russian Mafia and a cabal of corrupt cops, from all of whom she is rescued by guess who.I thought this was a better than average example of the genre. Catherine Chan does a good job as the child math prodigy, wisely underplaying her role, and the contrasting locales in China and various NYC environments add visual interest. If you're a fan of the genre, I think you'll like this one. If you haven't seen any action thrillers and want to try one out, this one might be a good choice. If you don't care for the genre, you'll probably want to skip it. My three star rating is based on how attractive I think the film would be to a general audience; if you're a fan of the genre, give it four stars.Advisory: rated R, which I thought was rather surprising, since there's not much sex, language is fairly mild by current standards, and the violence, though pervasive, is not especially gory: as often, there is a certain video game quality to the series of bad guys getting blasted bam-bam-bam. I saw this on the Lion's Gate Region 1 Blu-Ray, which was of very good quality.
alindsay-al
Now I do like Jason Statham and I do believe he can do good films such as Snatch and the Expendables, however, this is not one of them in my opinion. The story sees Luke an ex cop cage fighter lose everything and have nothing to live for until he meets a young Chinese and is given a new mission in life. Now as I said I do like Statham and he is okay in this film especially in the action scenes, but sometimes he seems a bit lazy in his role and occasionally like he is phoning it in. The girl he teams up with does a good job in the role even though her character is a complete stereotype, but she has good good chemistry with Statham. But the rest of the supporting cast are paper thin and cliché with none of the Russian, Chinese or corrupt cops providing good characters. The story is bad with just way too many unnecessary plot twists that you will not care about. Also there are just too many villains in this film that none of them are interesting at all which takes away from the conflict. The script is also not very good with the dialogue seeming comic book like from the villains and the delivery from Statham isn't what it usually is. The style is easily the best part of the film with the action scenes being great and all the action being top notch, plus the sound design is great which makes every gunshot and blow feel harder then it is. Overall I have no interest in seeing this film again which is a disappointment.
bob the moo
A cage-fighter haunted by mobsters to the point of being suicidal is distracted from his own personal despair by a Chinese girl who seems to be being pursued by the same group. Stepping in to help her, Luke Wright finds himself drawn into a battle between several gangs and the police as everyone wants a number that she has memorized.Safe is a very odd film because it feels like the writers focused on just setting out the action scenes and it was only on the day of the shoot that someone realized they had no reason for the main character to be doing anything. The basic plot is there but Wright just seems to be whatever the film needs him to be. At first he is in despair and this is what we understand, then he needs connections to the police so it turns out he used to be a cop, then we need to believe that he is capable of what he does so we are told he is a super-soldier of some sort – and none of it makes sense. The plot really is crow barred around the action sequences and you get the feeling that the film never really believes it or cares about it either.The action is bloody but at least distracting in its violence. It is as much nonsense as the plot is though, and eventually it does get a bit tiring to see bodies dropping endlessly without any real investment from the viewer or impact on the main characters. Yakin directs with pace and energy and at least has that going for it. Statham is in odd accent mode, has some terrible lines of dialogue and never really gets his own character. He throws himself into the fights and gunplay, but he seems to have no thread to carry him through the film. Chan is not too cute, which is good, but she is a plot device. In the background countless henchmen fall and "you'll know his face" performances bulk out the main villain roles.Safe is really one for fans of Statham who will love him even in lesser films – which this is. It never convinces in the plot or characters, while the excessive action is distracting but ultimately overdoes the body count to its detriment.
AD
