MOVIE REVIEW - Safe

Jason Statham is back again in the action flick, Safe.

Statham has become a real favorite of young movie goers over the past few years as the modern day Steven Segal, or Jean Claude Van Damm. You know, the action guy that can beat up tons of guys at the same time. And basically do about anything he wants, to whomever he wants with no real consequences. His flicks are basically all the same. And sadly so is this. I say sadly, because at it's inception it looked like it was going to be different.

Safe is the story of a former New York City cop named Luke, (Statham). He is no longer on the force and is a second rate MMA star in New Jersey now. He is down and out. He crosses members of the Russian mob, and they kill his family and set him free to torture him, and to use him as a pawn. Thing is, the Russian mob is at war with the Chinese mob in New York. And to top it all off, the mayor, and members of the NYC PD are corrupt and are basically treating New York City as their own personal ATM Machine.

Meet Mei, (Catherine Chan). She is a 10 year old genius of a little girl from China. She has the remarkable ability to memorize every single thing she ever comes in contact with. The Chinese mob has kidnapped her and asked her to memorize a super-lengthy number that has a sequence. This is a key to incredible riches, and each mob is determined to get to it first. So Mei is a very valuable commodity. Problem is, after they are done with her, they are going to kill the little girl. Until Luke get involved. He is going to protect Mei.

When Luke doing just that, this is a far better movie. The chase, the suspense, the chemistry that is building between Luke and Mei. Can she trust him? The first hour of this looks quite a bit different than many movies like this. Then is sells out, and sells out hard. Mei disappears off screen for long periods of meaningful time, and Safe becomes a violent fest with elongated gun battle scenes, and scores of people getting shot. They completely abandon the original plot line, and it turns typical. Lots of testosterone, lots of corrupt cops, and lots of martial arts and killing. And that's too bad. They had a new thing going.

Oh yeah, at the end, Mei comes back and Luke is back to protecting her after everyone is dead who was trying to get to her. And believe it or not, the door is open for this story to continue. And you understand why, Mei is such an interesting character idea. But having more of these more than likely will be a tough sell. The box office take in its opening weekend, was terrible. Statham as likable as he is, all of his movies are the same, and he is hard to take serious anymore. He is good in this flick for what he's asked to do. He will be no exception. All former action hero's meet an end, and then reinvent themselves as something else. Maybe it's time for him to get started on that. Should be noted, Chan is very good in this little role, it should have been written as a bigger role. She is very good as little Mei.

Safe. It looked promising, but the temptation was just too much. In the end, it's just the same old stuff.