The Movie:

Written and directed by Boaz Yakin, 2012's Jason Statham starring vehicle Safe sees the man best known for the Crank and The Transporter movies playing a former cop named Luke Wright who once made a living as a cage fighter but who now wanders the streets of New York City as a bit of a drifter. Back in his cage fighting days he had ties to the Russian mob and they're not really keen that he split from them - in fact, they're keeping a pretty close eye on him. Things start to get interesting for Luke when he meets up with a young Asian girl named Mei (Catherine Chan) who is in need of his help and thus gives him a purpose to keep on going. As luck would have it, by sheer coincidence she is being pursued by the same Russian mobsters who have made his own life difficult and have ties to his tragic past, and he decides that since he doesn't really have a whole lot else to live for, he might as well do what he can to save her life.

Adding to all of this is the presence of some Chinese Triads (lead by the always awesome James Hong) who once used Mei as a tool in that she's got an amazing, almost savant like ability with numbers. They want her back and will do what it takes to get her back - even if that means taking out Wright. And then there are the corrupt New York City Police Department officers who are out to exploit this situation in whatever way they can... and given that Mei knows the combination to a safe full of loot, well, they aim to get in on this action too.

Safe may deal in a series of action movie clichés but it does so with such a gleefully unapologetic grin that you can't help but have gun with this. The movie never feels like it's talking down to us, instead it's as if we're in on the joke while at the same time, everyone involved does it like they mean it, it's all played completely straight. Statham gets a few good one liners here and there and the dialogue tends to lean towards the preposterous but the movie hits the ground running and once the plot is set up, it doesn't slow down until the end credits hit the screen. This is one of those pictures that just goes for it, realism be damned, and it's all the more fun because of it.

Statham isn't doing anything we haven't seen him do plenty of times before here. His character is a mix of Mel Gibson from the Lethal Weapon movies and, well, pretty much every other action movie antihero Statham has played in the past. He's good in these types of roles and he seems to have fun doing them, so while the guy doesn't really get a chance to stretch in this role, he does give it his all and kick a whole lot of ass in the process. In short, you can't help but like the guy in the part. Contrasting his big tough guy persona with Catherine Chan's Mei allows us to see a slightly softer side of him as he does genuinely want to help her, but we never really approach much depth here, we get just enough of it to further the story along and that's that.

The real reason to watch the movie is, not surprisingly, the action sequences - all of which are top notch and plenty violent. We get countless car chases through New York City (and sometimes Pennsylvania locations doubling for New York City) and a really fun machine gun battle that takes place in the ornate lobby of a fancy hotel (and which therefore offers up lots of stuff to break and shatter and explode once the bullets start flying) and we even get a guy who is killed with a fork. It all amounts to a whole lot of nonsense but damn if it isn't fun. There are enough plot twists in the script to keep you interested and given that the film leaves things open for a sequel and that Statham movies tend to get sequels made fairly quickly for whatever reason, don't be surprised if we see a follow up movie made sooner rather than later. If it's half as much fun as this one, that'll be a good thing.

Video:

Safe arrives on Blu-ray in a very nice looking AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 2.35.1, just as you'd hope for with such a recent movie making the move to Blu-ray. Detail is always very strong as is texture and color reproduction, when not intentionally tweaked for artistic effect, generally looks nice and realistic. Skin tones are nice and natural looking here, no obvious waxiness by way of noise reduction to complain about, while black levels are strong if not quite reference quality. There aren't any issues with compression artifacts or noticeable edge enhancement and all in all, the movie fares very well in high definition.