Jason takes Manhattan

And Brooklyn—he's at DeKalb Avenue above. I liked Statham's latest, Safe, okay, and here's why, for MSN Movies. 

Comments

[David Ehrenstein]

Not I hope to be confused with "Safe"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXC-Aj4XOXY&feature=related

[lipranzer]

But does he take Berlin?

[JF]

You really think the Stathe could put up with 13 years of boredom?

But always nice to see cinema's poet laureate of jump-kicking people in the face at work.

Well, except for Revolver. And that one Uwe Boll picture (his grandfather Heinrich must have been so disappointed).

[Graig]

Anyone seen Boaz Yakin's last movie DEATH IN LOVE? It's a familial horror movie with holocaust overtones starring Josh Lucas, Jacqueline Bisset, and Adam Brody. Kind of awkward and stilted with parts that don't work at all, but man, what a fascinating and riveting film. You get the sense of a filmmaker using the canvas to work out a lot of personal issues, not unlike the last two Von Triers. On Netflix Instant. Worth a watch.

[bill]

Graig, I was circling that movie when it was on VOD a while back. I'll check it out now, thanks.

[Oliver_C]

Is it 'Safe'?

Yes, it's safe, it's very safe, it's so safe you wouldn't believe it.

Is it '[SAFE]'?

No. It's not safe, it's... very dangerous, be careful -- OWWW!!!!!

[Bruce Reid]

JF: I'm seriously surprised Revolver hasn't developed a cult by now; the thematic overreach only fuels the genuine weirdness at play. It's not Statham's masterpiece--I'd plug for Transporter 2, the best parts of the Crank films, even the underrated War--but it's as close to one as Ritchie will ever get.

[JF]

Whatever enjoyment I was hoping to find in the weirdness of Revolver was undermined by the fact that Ritchie's particular type of vapid flashiness bores me. That one shootout near the end is kind of nifty but Neveldine/Taylor come up with something that inventive every 3 minutes.

[David Ehrenstein]

Jackie is superb in "Latter Days"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKEWIsUS7y0

one of the best love stories of recent vintage.

[Tom Russell]

I couldn't stand Revolver, probably for many of the same reasons that others find it so fascinating-- for example, the bizarre end-credits interviews with pop psychologists.

Ray Liotta's eyeshadow was, as usual, fascinating, but I can watch other, better movies for that-- for example, that Uwe Boll movie Statham was in, IN THE NAME OF THE KING, which, um, is actually pretty good.

No, really, I mean it. It's a very idiosyncratic work of high fantasy. Other films in the genre would cast an old British dude to be the evil wizard; Boll casts Ray Liotta. The secondary villain is Matthew Lilliard, and he plays a very specific type very well. The film oozes oddity and presents unusual takes on familiar tropes. That's its strength; too many high fantasy films, especially in the wake of Jackson's LOTR trilogy, are homogeneous: they all do things one way. Fantasy *should* be idiosyncratic, dammit.

Now, Ritchie's REVOLVER is also idiosyncratic and strange, and the argument could be made that that's a good thing, too. I dunno; I got more out of IN THE NAME OF THE KING-- I'm likely to see it again, whereas I have no desire to suffer through REVOLVER once more.

[JF]

SNATCH-HUMOR+WHAT THE BLEEP TO WE KNOW?=REVOLVER

I'm almost tempted to actually put myself through IN THE NAME OF THE KING: A DUNGEON SIEGE TALE (can't forget the subtitle) now. But some of the stuff Boll's put out in his post-Internet-infamy period is so repugnant (Darfur? Auschwitz? Da fug?) that I'm not inclined to give him a millisecond more of my time.

[Aden Jordan]

At this point in the current cinema, Statham is probably the most consistent lead figure in action movies. His films are rarely exceptional or terrible, but instead typically make for reliable genre escapism.

Admittedly, I have not seen '13' or 'In the Name of the King' so I'm not taking those into consideration.

[David N]

Statham is actually good in Roger Donaldson's solid The Bank Job, in a non-action role. He just chooses material that won't challenge him. Saying that, the thought of him as Richard Stark's Parker baffles me.

Revolver: seemed like Richie doesnt have the intelligence as a filmmaker for his own themes. "Overreach" is a kind way of putting it.

[Bruce Reid]

Well, I certainly know how to read a room. For me, Ritchie's urge to suddenly have something to say without actually leaving his comfort zone (like how Larry Flynt got Jesus and proceeded to photograph naked ladies on the cross) made both his action-movie tropes and his underbaked philosophies stranger and more entertaining than either would be on their own.

And I do like that push-in shootout JF mentions.

[Bettencourt]

I actually think he's a good choice to play Parker. The fact that the movie doesn't seem to be actually based on any of Stark/Westlake's original novels is troubling, though.

A friend who saw Mel Gibson in GET THE GRINGO (formerly HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION) said it's actually closer to Parker than PAYBACK was. So of course it's premiering on video-on-demand.

[David N]

It's based on one of the later - post comeback - Parker novels, Flashfire..

[Peter Labuza]

I saw "The Bank Job" is a shoddy dollar theater. What a perfect theater experience.

[Oliver_C]

Probably should take advantage of the Statham shot above to plug Oscilloscope Pictures' recent DVD special edition of 'Dark Days', a Manhattan subway documentary all the more remarkable for being the work of a neophyte filmmaker.