Review: Safe

Safe
Cert: 15 / 95 mins / Dir. Boaz Yakin



Safe is that odd mix of an often lighthearted tone, fused with some pretty brutal violence. The film has beautiful stylistic touches, such as the camera showing us The Stath™ running over hoodlums in a stolen car by focusing purely on the contents of the rearview mirror, but many parts of the script are flat-out appalling, both in writing and delivery.

Given the patchy nature of Jason's back-catalogue, Safe is a lot of fun, and definitely in the top-end of his canon, but it lacks the greatness that The Stath™ can bring when he's really trying.

Luckily, The Stath™'s autopilot cruises well above the level that many of today's action heroes don't reach when they're on manual. IMHO. Obviously.

Safe is 'a Jason Statham film', with everything that implies.

Yes.



Pretty much.



Pretty much.



If you're a fan of The Stath™, it's worth the four quid for a rental. But if you're not, you won't even be considering it anyway..



No.



Yes.



Not that I heard. Could be wrong, though.

As much as I love The Stath™, he's going to have to do something new soon or risk going the way of Van Damme (although many would argue that's happened already).
What would you like to see him have a go at, and more importantly, do you think he'd be able to pull it off?

DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a 'catch-up' review. I watched this film at home, not at the cinema. I saw the trailer for this at the cinema, and I would have seen the film there too, but they didn't/couldn't show it. So now iTunes, Amazon, Netflix and Blockbuster get to reap the rewards of my local's advance-advertising, and I'm sure they're delighted. Now you may say "oh come on, they can't show everything down there", and that would be a valid point if they didn't do things like running Taken 2 for six weeks. Was it that successful? No, I don't think so. Twilight? Batman? Les Mes? Sure, go for it; if they're pulling the punters in then keep making that money. But Taken 2? I ask you. Anyway, this is essentially a DVD review, but still of a new(ish) film. There. I'm glad that's sorted.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.