This movie is way better than it should be. Donât get me wrong; if you hate dumb action movies, you should stay far, far away from Safe. Itâs not going to make any converts. But if youâll go see a Jason Statham movie just because Jason Statham maintains the same delicious swagger in all his films, no matter how excrementitious those films may be (shout-out to Blitz!) youâll come out of Safe feeling surprised and pleased by how good it is. Just as this isnât hacky low-budget action Statham, this isnât batshit Statham, Ă la Crank or Transporter 2, either. Instead, itâs something a little bit different.
I assume that much of the difference comes with writer/director Boaz Yakin. Thereâs extra thought put into the script: Rather than just introducing us to the good guys and the bad guys in the first two minutes, Safe spreads out the stories of the principal characters in a layered series of flashbacks, and Stathamâs characterâs secrets (his name in this movie is supposed to be Luke Wright, but come on; like Bogart is always Bogart, no Statham character is ever anyone other than Statham) slowly unravel over the course of the action...
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