Safe (2012)

I’ll admit it, I wasn’t originally going to see this film. It’s not that I don’t like Jason Statham, far from it, he’s a badass, he’s tough as nails, he’s British! And he’s also a pretty good actor. But, let’s face it, once you’ve seen one Jason Statham film, you’ve seen them all. Jason is a tough guy with a heart of gold, something happens to a loved one which makes him want revenge/something heinous happens in the distance, and Statham kicks arse to resolve the problem.

The only reason I saw this film was because I asked a friend of mine what she wanted to see, and she suggested this film. So I went and saw it. And I was pleasantly surprised. Okay, at times it was your standard and typical Jason Statham film, but at others there was a fresh approach to the genre. On a side note, before the film comes on we got the standard ‘the BBFC grants this film a whatever rating’, where we’re told we’re watching ‘Safe House’. I guess a film where Jason Statham protects a young Chinese girl can easily get mixed up with a film where Ryan Reynolds protects Denzel Washington.

The film follows Mei (Catherine Chan), a young girl who is forced to work for the Triads as she is effectively a supercomputer. When she is given a code to a safe, the Russian Mafia attack and effectively a three-way war breaks out between the Mafia, the Triads and the corrupt police force, who all want her; dead or alive.

But where does Statham fall into this? Well we first meet him playing Luke Wright, participating in a cage fight, which instantly cuts to him at the hospital ward trying to visit his opponent, who was defeated with one punch. Seriously, Statham punches the guy once and, not only does he appear to break every bone in the guy’s body, but Statham puts him into a coma. It just so happens that before this fight, he purposefully lost every other fight, and therefore Wright was suppose to lose this fight. However,  since Wright won, he cost the Russian Mafia (What a coincidence!) a lot of money. Though I’m not sure why they’re after him because, as far as I’m aware, Wright had no idea about the fix.

Anyway the Mafia kill his (Apparently pregnant) wife, and say that they’ll keep an eye on him, killing anyone he comes into contact, even for the littlest things. But, Wright isn’t just a cage fighter, he was a police officer, but he fell foul apparently of the corrupt police officers, headed by Captain Wolf (Robert John Burke). Yeah about everyone in this film is corrupt. But not only that, but Wright was effectively a black-ops guy. Or something along those lines I don’t know.

First of all, the plot is simple, but it’s all you need for this film. The film sets the story quickly so that you can get to the action quicker, which is actually puller off quite nicely. The only fault I have is that the intro is too quick, we keep flashing back and forth between different characters about every five seconds. Another downside is that we don’t really get an emotional bonding between Mei and Wright, their chemistry seems forced rather than natural.

The acting is actually much better than what you’d expect for a standard action film, let alone a Statham film. Statham himself not only pulls off the badass character superbly (Of course), but the scene where he contemplates suicide was brilliant, it actually fooled me at one point that the film was about to lose its main character. Burke meanwhile is just fantastic, and Reggie Lee...oh hey Reggie Lee! I wonder if that guy who normally plays a jerk in films/TV shows plays a jerk in this. But seriously, Reggie Lee was great. Chan...mmmmmmm she’s okay I guess. It is her first major film so I’ll give her some slack; she isn’t great, but she shows she has a lot of potential.

The characters themselves are really intriguing. Okay, pretty much every character is corrupt (I bet even Wright is corrupt in some form) and Wright himself has such a convoluted and clichéd past, but the other characters more than make up for it. The main antagonist isn’t who you’d expect it to be (Anson Mount), which makes a nice change, mainly because you expect the main antagonist to be in a powerful position, but he instead controls the city through a puppet. He’s even said to be an even better fighter than Wright, one who would easily defeat him. In fact, I think he's one of my new favourite movie villains. That of course means we’re robbed of climax.

Speaking of interesting characters, Reggie Lee’s character has more to him than meets the eye. He portrays the ruthless and manipulative killer brilliantly, but when he has a casino owner beaten and then killed, he does it without remorse, without hesitation. Likewise, when he becomes Mei’s “adoptive” father, he does it simply because he’s following orders. However a year later (When the film is currently taking place) and the Russians attack the Triad convoy and Quan Chang (Lee) pulls a gun on Mei, he apologises. Heck, he apologises AGAIN later in the film when he meets up with Mei again. It shows that, while he is a ruthless psychopath, he still has an emotional attachment to Mei. Mei even learns things from him; Chang may have been forced to put up with Mei, but he really did become a father figure to Mei.

So, this is probably my favourite Jason Statham film. This is just a fun film to watch. The acting is fantastic, the action is entertaining, the characters are brilliant and the story is simple but great. If you’re a die hard Statham/action genre, then you will definitely love this. Otherwise this film is still a hugely entertaining film to watch.