SAFE

This movie is way better than it should be. Don't get me wrong; if you hate dumb action movies, you should stay far, far away from Safe. It's not going to make any converts. But if you'll go see a Jason Statham movie just because Jason Statham maintains the same delicious swagger in all his films, no matter how excrementitious those films may be (shout-out to Blitz!), you'll come out of Safe feeling surprised and pleased by how good it is. Just as this isn't hacky low-budget action Statham, this isn't batshit Statham, à la Crank or Transporter 2, either. Instead, it's something a little bit different. I assume that much of the difference comes with writer/director Boaz Yakin. There's extra thought put into the script: Rather than just introducing us to the good guys and the bad guys in the first two minutes, Safe spreads out the stories of the principal characters in a layered series of flashbacks, and Statham's character's secrets (his name in this movie is supposed to be Luke Wright, but come on; like Bogart is always Bogart, no Statham character is ever anyone other than Statham) slowly unravel over the course of the action. (PAUL CONSTANT)