Safe

Directed by Boaz Yakin. Starring Jason Statham, Catherine Chan, Chris Sarandon, James Hong, Reggie Lee, Danny Hoch 16 cert, general release, 93 mins

ONE OF THE things we like about Jason Statham is his ability to straddle the line between self-parody and brow-furrowed sincerity. Occasionally, as in the bizarre Crank, he can turn into his own savagely drawn cartoon.

At his best, in films such as The Transporter and this gritty chase thriller, he can make the willing viewer believe the unbelievable.

Just listen to this. The Stath plays a former New York copturned celebrated cage fighter who falls fatally foul of the Russian mafia. They murder his wife and send him into a state of unwashed, catatonic grief. Then he finds a new purpose in life: Asian villains from an unreconstructed 19th-century sensation novel have kidnapped a young maths genius and taken her to Manhattan. Satham intervenes and ultimately becomes the kid’s protector.

The average viewer will have no trouble accepting the unlikely automotive stunts, crazy dialogue and outlandish circus acrobatics. But only Statham could get away with that accent. Has nobody else noticed that this hardened New York copper seems to have just stepped off the bus from Dartford? Of course they have. But Jason Statham can make us believe anything.

Boaz Yakin, who, more than two decades ago, directed Dolph Lundgren in The Punisher, promises a little more than he can deliver. The opening sections of Safe are quite terrific. Cutting back and forth from China to New York, the girl’s tale is told with admirable momentum and economy. That unstoppable veteran James Hong is quietly diabolical as the villain who trusts human calculating machines over computers. Mark Mothersbaugh provides a buzzy score that nimbly avoids genre clichés.

Unfortunately, Safe loses its way slightly in the last half hour. Rather than steadily increasing the intensity of the violence, Yakin, upon reaching the 70-minute mark, rams his foot down and abandons us to an unstructured apocalypse of noisy ordnance. The over-reliance on gunfire does Statham – at his best when brawling with fists – no good whatsoever. Still, this remains a hugely entertaining, agreeably idiotic slice of prime, selected Stath. Long may he reign.