Safe 
                                 
Director: Boaz Yakin
Year: 2012
Rating: 7.5
I like Statham in just about everything and so wondered why this one had never come my way before or that I had not even heard about it till I saw a mini-clip of it on one of those FB vids - of him in the subway contemplating suicide till he sees some tough guys going after a little Asian girl. The Dekalb subway stop which is three away from me on the R Line. This turns out to basically be a John Wick film before there was a John Wick franchise. Instead of a dead dog that brings him back to life, it is this small girl who gives him purpose again. Saving her and killing everyone else. Between him and Wick, NYC is a much safer city. Wick only took out the Russians in his first film, Statham pretty much takes out a Russian gang and the Chinese triad. Throw in some dirty cops too. All in one night.  




The film spends the first third setting up the killing field. He is a ring fighter allowing himself to be bashed. We don't learn till later why. He has some special skills that finally got to him. He is supposed to throw a fight but one punch takes the other guy out and the Russians lost a lot of money. Now they want a piece of meat in return (a touch of Pulp Fiction and many other noirs in this plot), but instead of killing him, they kill his wife and tell him anyone he talks to will be killed because they are watching. Not closely enough as it turns out. They killed the wrong person. The other side of this equation is a ten year old Chinese girl (Catherine Chan) who has a photographic memory. A triad gang headed by a very nasty James Hong decides to use her instead of a computer to keep records. Seems risky to me. They bring her to America. And a deal with the Russians goes badly. The Chinese want her as do the Russians. She has a number. An important number. The dirty cops want her too.




She runs away and that is when Statham spots her. He has come to the end of his rope. Turns out his skills are killing people. A lot of them. All over NYC (a touch of Taken). Totally unbelievable of course with dead bodies piling up like the plague. He gets her, he loses her, he kills everyone to get her back. Nothing fancy. No CGI that I recall. Just a guy who can kill with anything close to him. I quite enjoyed this. Surprised this wasn't made into a franchise. But Statham isn't Keanu Reeves.