Safe!
04.25.2012 | By Karen Posada |
This is such a kick-ass movie, it may start off slow but once the action starts in ‘Safe!’ it is relentless! Although the hero in this film is a down to earth guy, he has absolutely nothing to loose and that’s what makes him push himself and his story to the limit. The story- line is supposed to have some drama and have some emotional motivation, but this link is very weak and somewhat uninteresting; what makes this movie worth watching is the action.
The story is a bit convoluted, a former NYPD cop Luke Wright (Jason Statham) blows a rigged fight controlled by the Russian Mafia, which to punish him leave him with absolutely nothing and a promise to keep an eye on him for the rest of his life. While living on the streets and contemplating suicide, he runs into a Chinese girl, Mei (Catherine Chan), who’s running away from the mafia that ruined Luke’s life. He’s motivated to help the girl, who happens to be a math wiz being used by the Triads (Chinese Mafia). Luke decides to save the girl’s life at any cost and automatically jumps into an underground war between the mobs as well as some corrupt cops, as they all try to get a hold of the girl.
Director Boaz Yakin welcomed us to the screening of this film very humbly and explained to us the connection between the action and drama in the film as well as his reason for choosing Statham. There’s no question as to why Statham was chosen for this role, he is built for this type of high fast paced action films. If you’ve seen any of the films throughout his career, then you know this actor who usually performs his own fight scenes and stunts delivers every time and this film isn’t an exception. Despite of the fact that Yakin meant for there to be some deep emotional motivation behind the story, this is very feeble and even the main character himself accepts to not being able to make a strong connection to this girl he’s saving. But that’s beside the point, because that sets the base to this crazy ‘Grand Theft Auto’ like story. Chan might be meant as the part of the story that softens your heart, but this girl is far from that because she is independent, smart-mouthed and of course although she is a child she is still very strong in a lot of ways.
Yakin also told us here he wanted to represent the New York he grew up in, so this is a throwback type of action film bowing to some of the classics. You may hold your breath in some scenes, laugh and stay with your mouth open in others. So, get ready to be part of a story where a man and a girl give the City of New York a make over, while trying to survive this action thriller.
