Jason Statham is a franchise unto himself. He tends to more or less play the same growly-voiced butt-kicking macho man over and over with superficial differences, like how his titular super-spy in “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” enjoys a fine wine. Or how his personal driver, Frank Martin, in “The Transporter” films is meticulous about keeping his suits clean and neatly pressed. You always know exactly what to expect from his films and there’s a comfort in that. They embody the type of “Action Movies Your Dad Watches” that were the bread and butter of networks like TNT and TBS in the pre-streaming age of cable.
In recent years, Netflix has stepped in to meet that same demand with a fresh supply of original action films of … let’s just say varied quality. But why settle for Netflix’s latest pale imitation of a well-established action property when you can get the real deal by watching one of The Stath’s own films instead? That seems to be the impetus behind people streaming “Safe,” an otherwise mostly forgotten 2012 Statham action-thriller that’s been climbing the Netflix charts of late.
Written and directed by Boaz Yakin (“Remember the Titans”), “Safe” casts Statham as Luke Wright, a New York City-based cage fighter who inadvertently wins a rigged match. In retaliation, Emile Docheski (Sándor Técsy), the head of NYC’s Russian mafia, has Wright’s pregnant wife murdered and threatens to kill anyone else he cares about, forcing Wright to abandon his old life. But just as the guilt-stricken Wright begins to seriously contemplate killing himself, who should enter his orbit but Mei (Catherine Chan), a 12-year-old Chinese mathematics prodigy who, thanks to the special numerical code that only she knows, finds herself being hunted by the Triads, corrupt NYPD officers, and the Russian mobsters who killed Wright’s family?
The Stath plays things safe
“Safe” marks off just about every box on the “Dad Action Movie” checklist. A fridged wife? Check. A precocious kid the hero must protect to redeem himself? Check. Villains who are members of either Russian or Southeast Asian organized crime families and conspire with dirty cops? Why not both? Jason Statham beating the guacamole out of any evil-doer who dares to cross his path? You know the film has got you covered there. Everything about “Safe” is middle of the road, right down to its middling but adequate reviews (it’s barely “Fresh” on Rotty T’s among critics). It only grossed $41.5 million against a $33 million budget, but thanks to home media sales and its mid-budget, it was far from a colossal failure.
So what’s drawing people to “Safe” on Netflix? Part of it, again, is most likely the familiarity of Statham’s films. Even the more serious ones like Yakin’s thriller tend to deliver precisely what they promised. Another factor might be the pairing of The Stath with a kid. As /Film’s Jacob Hall noted during his interview with director Ben Wheatley for the latter’s Statham vs. Shark sequel, “Meg 2: The Trench,” the more wholesome Statham is also the best Statham. Not that “Safe” features the actor at his most nurturing and positive the way he is in the “Meg” films, but casting him as a surrogate father figure is a useful way of bringing out that side of him.
Then again, who can truly fathom the ways of the Netflix top 10? I’m just waiting for the streamer’s subscribers to rediscover The Stath’s “Crank” films so we can have a conversation about the sheer amount of mind-bogglingly bizarre mayhem that goes down in those movies.
