A second-rate cage fighter on the mixed martial arts circuit, Luke Wright lives a numbing life of routine beatings and chump change...until the day he blows a rigged fight. Wanting to make an example of him, the Russian Mafia murders his family and banishes him from his life forever, leaving Luke to wander the streets of New York destitute, haunted by guilt, and tormented by the knowledge that he will always be watched, and anyone he develops a relationship with will also be killed.

But when he witnesses a frightened twelve-year-old Chinese girl, Mei, being pursued by the same gangsters who killed his wife, Luke impulsively jumps to action...and straight into the heart of a deadly high-stakes war. Mei, he discovers, is no ordinary girl, but an orphaned math prodigy forced to work for the Triads as a "counter." He discovers she holds in her memory a priceless numerical code that the Triads, the Russian mob and a corrupt faction of the NYPD will kill for. Realizing he's the only person Mei can trust, Luke tears a swath through the city's brutal underworld to save an innocent girl's life...and perhaps even redeem his own.

When one speaks of Jason Statham these days, they often revolve around his typecast roles in exploitative genre films. Particularly action crime thrillers like Boaz Yakin's Safe.

With a husky assassin's accent and an action star's façade, Statham shouts nothing less of a promising action star. It is bemusing to one on his repeated lacklustre film selection, which subjects his testosterones to waste.

That said, nothing outstanding came from Statham in Safe either.

Yakin's scripting and directorial efforts are best described as haphazard and preposterous. Technical issues pertaining to photography (Stefan Czapsky) and editing (Frédéric Thoraval) aside, the majority of the action scenes were devised with little or no clarity.

Composition consists of too many medium and close up shots, thus a lack of wide shots leads to poor construction and establishment of scenes. There is little I could do to visually capture and digest the action sequences. The quick-cut erratic editing coupled with unreined zooming and panning made for an unpleasant cinematic experience.

Dialogue and plot scripting is razer thin, further diminishing the production's weight as a potential serious action crime thriller. The cross cutting between Statham and young newcomer Catherine Chan during the opening premise renders false hope as the film crashes and burns with formulaic obligations upon Mei's arrival in New York city.

While most movies tend to pit Chinese and Russian gangs against each other in the NYC setting, it is interesting to revisit the days when corruption manifests certain cops who are keen in seeking benefits between the law and outlaws. This context allows Statham to pull off a blockbuster worthy gun-blazing spectacle subsequently, which is arguably the film's key highlight.

Observing closely, you might notice a discrepancy in the Chinese mobster head Han Jiao who sports a Hong Kong accented Mandarin when one expects verbally Mainland Chinese.

If you can look past the implausibility, a couple of the action scenes do go down well with popcorn and soda. That means it might be a better choice to catch this on a living room couch than in a theatre seating.

With a little more ambition, I believe Yakin can develop it beyond its blockbuster class into something darker and with depth. As an action thriller starring Jason Statham, Safe is sadly too safe for liking.