Safe (2012)

Safe (2012)

 

Starring: Jason Statham, Catherine Chan, Chris Sarandon, James Hong, Robert John Burke,  Anson Mount, Reggie Lee, Sándor Técsy, Joseph Sikora
Director: Boaz Yakin
Action Director: Chad Stahelski, J. J. Perry

There’s a part of me that considers Safe to be a better Transporter film than Transporter Refueled, even if to do so would require one to put themselves in a mindset that a too-cool-for-school character like Frank Martin could ever hit rock bottom and end up a broken man. I’ve complained about that trope on social media before, so it is sort of weird of me to project it onto a film like Safe. But whatever, we all have exceptions to our rules.

The first shot of the film is of a young Chinese girl (Catherine Chan) wandering about the streets of New York City, catching the eye (from a distance) of a seemingly homeless man (Jason Statham) who’s waiting for the subway. Flashback to a few years prior. The girl is Mei, a student prodigy living in China who has a perfect photographic memory, especially for numbers. Mei lives with her (unseen) mother—her father ran out on her—and once words of her talent reach the school principal, she is picked up by the Triads, led by Uncle Han Jiao (James Hong, of Big Trouble in Little China and Bloodsport 2). Uncle Han blackmails Mei into joining their cause—using her mother as bait—so that she can become a human ledger for their activities (no paper trail, less trouble from the authorities) in America. She is taken to NYC where the local head honcho, Quan Chang (Reggie Lee, of Frankenfish and Pirates of the Caribbean: At Land’s End), becomes her “legal” and de-facto dad.

Statham’s story is equally, if not more, tragic. He plays Luke Wright, a Special Forces-turned-cop-turned-MMA fighter who has just made the biggest mistake of his life. A lot of rich types have blackmailed him into becoming the “guy who loses” in order to cash in on the betting scene. That would include the Russian mafia. Unfortunately, Wright lets his anger slip and punches one of his opponents...so hard that the man goes into a coma. As his “backers” have now lost considerable sums of money, they get back at him by murdering his pregnant wife. They also tell him that anybody he associates with will also get killed, effectively reducing him to a sub-human homeless bum status.

One day changes everything.

Han Jiao flies out to NYC to meet with Quan Chang and Mei, mainly to give a special mission to the latter: she has to memorize two sets of very long numbers. After memorizing the first, she is transported by Quan Chang to an unknown location where she will be presented with the second number. Quan’s car is cut off by the Russian mob, who open fire on the occupants and make off with Mei. Mei is taken to the Russian Big Buy, Emile Dochesky (Sándor Técsy, who died before the movie came out in theaters), who demands to know what the code is and what it’s fore. Mei is able to escape and flees to the subway, where she captures Luke’s eye. Seeing that she’s not only in danger, but is being pursued by the same creeps who have made his life a living hell for the past few years, he finally finds purpose in his life. And soon Mei will not only have the Russians and Chinese on her tail, but a bunch of corrupt cops (led by Robocop 3’s Robert John Burke) whose colleagues Luke had tattled on years before.

Safe is a tough and gritty action film with a nice human touch, with Statham finding in Mei a purpose to keep on trucking after he’s gone a day too long without any. It never really gets maudlin, but Statham gets to show a vulnerable side that one never sees in films like The Expendables and The Transporter. He is street smart and can fight with the best of them, obviously, but here he willingly and instinctively takes on the protector role (unlike The Transporter films, where he’s usually coerced into it). I think it’s this sincere human element that raises this film above many other Statham tough guy flicks.

The big McGuffin is the pair of (long) numbers that Mei is forced to memorize, although it’s never specified how the second number was supposed to work. We do learn what the numbers refer to and the objects they represent do come into play with the story as Luke Wright forges alliances and other temporary alliances in order to keep Mei safe and the bargaining chips in his hands. I would say that the main shortcoming of the story is the revelation of a (new) final villain in the last act and the lack of an appropriate final throwdown with him at the end. I wonder if the filmmakers ran out of money and shooting time, or if it was scripted to end the way it did.

The fights were staged by Chad Stahelski of the 87eleven stunt team, which is best known for its work on the John Wick series and films like Atomic Blonde. Team member J.J. Perry of Mortal Kombat Annihilation and Undisputed II: Last Man Standing is credited as the stunt coordinator. The action is a healthy mix of fighting and gunplay, with one car chase worthy of the “Transporter” films (but less over the top). The first big fight occurs on the subway, where Luke has to dispatch a group of Russian mobsters who are pursuing Mei. There’s some nice choreography here. The showstopper is the assault on the Chinese casino, which is a great mixture of gunplay and fisticuffs as Luke and his former police “buddies” take on a small army of Chinese Triads. Fans of the John Wick franchise will definitely appreciate this particular sequence. As I said earlier, the film flounders on the lack of a defined climatic showdown, especially as it introduces a character who would be Luke’s equal, and then does nothing with him.

Nonetheless, the strong story, good acting and brutal action up to those last 10 minutes or so are more than enough to recommend the film.