'Safe' is a cracking good thriller

Action abounds: Jason Statham takes on Triads, the Russian Mob and corrupt cops while protecting a talented young girl in 'Safe.' (Credit: John Bear, Lionsgate)

Collateral damage be damned: Safe (* * * out of four, R, opens Friday) may have the highest body count of any movie this year.

Bullets fly, blood spurts and bodies drop all across the mean streets of New York. But through it all, there's a fairly engrossing action thriller centering on Luke Wright (Jason Statham), a cop turned secret assassin turned cage fighter turned homeless man turned guardian angel of death.

Boaz Yakin's slick direction, marked by quick cuts, unstinting energy and a lack of sentimentality, makes the action scenes satisfying. But he's a better director than writer. The dialogue is riddled with clichés.

The British-born Statham is one of the best action stars around. With his rugged good looks and hard-boiled demeanor, we can almost buy that he single-handedly takes down nearly every member of the New York-based Russian and Chinese mafias and withstands massive pummeling from rogue cops he threatens to expose. It helps that we've seen him do a variation of this part in the Transporter series, The Italian Job and The Expendables.

Statham ably conveys coiled ferocity, a haunted quality and tightly focused street smarts. What makes this role fresh is that his chance for redemption comes in the unlikely form of a brainy little girl.

Between maneuvering cars in perilous chases and engaging in fisticuffs with occasional assists from weaponry, Wright becomes the protector of an 11-year-old girl. Mei (Catherine Chan) is a math prodigy kidnapped from her native China and made to work for a Chinatown Mob boss (James Hong). Her job is a kind of bookkeeper. She memorizes long strings of numbers, which are part of a much-coveted code, allowing the mobsters to bypass computers and documentation.

At his lowest point after a devastating string of events, the tormented Wright spots Mei standing alone and looking terrified in a subway station. He is just about to jump onto the tracks, but her furtive movements distract him. In a daring stunt, he jumps onto the roof of a moving subway train and into the fray, which consists of a half-dozen Russian gangsters chasing Mei. When she asks why he saved her from the thugs, he replies: "You saved me."

Between the warring gangsters and the double-crossing cops, it can be hard to keep straight who's double-crossing whom and exactly over what. But, of course, it all comes down to money. Despite the convolutions of the plot, Statham's rough-hewn charisma and physicality sell Safe, overpowering the ludicrousness of a one-man killing machine.

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