In China, the girl Mei is a genius that looks like a computer in numbers. She is abducted by the Chinese Triads and the boss Han Jiao ends Mei to Chinatown, in New York, to help him in the control of his activities. Meanwhile, the fighter Luke Wright has his life destroyed when he wins a fight against the will of the Russian Mafia and accidentally kills his opponent. The Russian mobsters kill his wife and the alcoholic Luke wanders on the streets and hostels with no objective in life. One day, Han Jiao asks Mei to memorize a long number and soon the Russian Mafia abducts the girl from the Chinese mobs. She escapes from the mobsters and is chased by the Russians; by the corrupt detectives from the NYPD; and by the Triads. When Luke sees the girl fleeing from the Russian mobs in the subway, he protects the girl and discovers that the number she had memorized is the combination of a safe where the Triads keep 30 million dollars. Luke is an elite agent and uses his skills to protect the girl. Mei, a young girl whose memory holds a priceless numerical code, finds herself pursued by the Triads, the Russian mob, and corrupt NYC cops. Coming to her aid is an ex-cage fighter whose life was destroyed by the gangsters on Mei's trail. A former elite agent takes on a two-tier mission, firstly, rescue a Chinese girl who has been abducted by the Triads. <br/><br/>Then, use a highly desired safe combination to outwit the Russian Mafia, corrupt NYC officials, and the Triads themselves…..<br/><br/>This isn't your typical Jason Statham movie, if your expecting another easy going Besson type action movie like The Transporter, this is a wholly different movie.<br/><br/>It's very grim and dark in tone, and secondly there is an awful lot going on, so for once, a level of concentration is required, so not a six pack movie.<br/><br/>Fight scenes are adequate, but very sparse, but this is more of a character study, rather than all out action.<br/><br/>Statham is as expected, all moody, broody and dangerous, he loses the will to live more or less at the beginning of the movie, so when he bumps into Mei, it's literally life changing.<br/><br/>So why is it all just a little boring? <br/><br/>Because too many cooks spoil the broth, we have Triads, Russian Mafia, corrupt cops, and a corrupt mayor, all after the same thing, so we have endless scenes of the different groups talking about the same thing.<br/><br/>Not bad by any means, just unmemorable. After a decade of indifference, I've started to come around a bit on Jason Statham. He's like the McDonald's of actors. Let me explain. <br/><br/>McDonald's makes Big Macs, each and every one identical in looks and taste to the other. Jason Statham makes Jason Statham movies, each and every one identical… you get the idea. And also like Big Macs, some of his movies are fresher than others. Safe qualifies as one of his fresher efforts. Not hot off the grill fresh, but not 20 minutes under a heat lamp either. <br/><br/>Tightly paced, competently acted and filled with slightly above average fight scenes, Safe is the kind of movie that will satiate you until a tastier movie comes along. A preposterously enjoyable - or enjoyably preposterous - action-thriller.
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364 weeks ago