Despite having made his big screen debut in Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels back in 1998, Jason Statham‘s star has never shone brighter than it has over the last couple of years. After playing second fiddle to Sylvester Stallone in the Expendables franchise, steering The Meg to over half a billion dollars at the box office and boarding the Fast & Furious series, leading to him headlining Hobbs & Shaw alongside Dwayne Johnson, the 52 year-old is currently in the midst of the hottest streak of his career from a box office perspective.
The former competitive diver may have got his big break playing charismatic and shady figures in the crime genre, but over the years, his stock-in-trade has been the mid-budget action movie, and when you see Jason Statham’s name above the title you pretty much know exactly what you’re going to get.
Arguably the king of the two-to-three star actioner, having built a reputation for churning out solid-if-unspectacular movies with one-word titles like Crank, War, Blitz, Parker, Hummingbird and Homefront, Statham seems happy to remain in his wheelhouse even though his supporting role in Paul Feig’s Spy showed how well his established screen persona lends itself to comedy.
Admittedly, not a lot of his output receives much in the way of critical adulation, but one of his more underrated efforts is on its way to Hulu, with Safe arriving on the streaming service next month, on August 1st. As you’d expect, the plot is nothing to write home about and hits the same beats as countless action thrillers before it, but it does boast one of Statham’s better lead performances as well as some of the most expertly-choreographed fight sequences to be found across his entire residency in the genre.
A Jason Statham movie is one of the best forms of cinematic comfort food, and Safe will no doubt rack up more than a few streams when it debuts on Hulu in August.
Published: Jul 17, 2020 10:43 am