There is a simplicity to many of Jason Statham’s films that a lot of his fans surely appreciate. As an action star, he’s a throwback to the icons of the 70s and 80s, stoic heroes who could wander into a bar, kick a man’s ass for looking at him funny, then silently sit down and finish his drink. The heightened Crank films, and perhaps some of the more insane martial arts sections of The Transporter series, seem to contradict this notion, but make no mistake: Statham is as close as modern audiences are going to get to these stars of old without throwing on a Blu-ray of The Dirty Dozen. His newest film, Safe, feels like a movie ripped from the 70s, with corrupt cops and embattled gangs criss-crossing New York City and Statham and a little girl caught in the middle of it.

Statham plays Luke Wright, “The Big Apple’s hardest cop, once upon a time.” Something went down in his past that got him kicked off the force, and he took a job as an MMA fighter to endure nightly beatings as penance for his misdeeds. But when he fails to take a dive in the film’s opening minutes, Russian gangsters who don’t take kindly to losing a lot of money make Wright’s life a living hell. They leave him alive, but threaten to kill anyone he befriends over the years. So he becomes a hobo, wandering the streets of New York, looking over his shoulder. He’s about to end it all when he meets Mei, a young Chinese girl who has the innate ability to memorize any number she sees. This, of course, has made her very valuable to Chinese gangsters, who have sent her to NYC to keep the books for their syndicate. When a deal between gangs goes south, Mei escapes and Statham protects her from the ruthless thugs who will do anything to get the information in Mei’s head.

The film does some interesting things in the way it brings these two characters together, cross-cutting between Wright and Mei in a way that makes their meeting seem inevitable. The editing is quick and direct, locking these two characters into a relationship in which only the other can help them escape their problems. Writer/director Boaz Yakin (if you’re looking for a quasi-bizarre filmography, check this dude out) brings a determined swagger to the film, fully aware that we’re there for the fight sequences but surprising us with an engaging story before the fists start to fly. And when the brawls do happen, they’re ferocious and – most importantly – they actually move the story forward instead of happening for motiveless reasons.

All that being said, this is still a B-movie. There’s a cheesy post-9/11 subplot and dialogue like, “Luke Wright is a ghost…a very deadly ghost,” and enough sleazy politicians and corrupt cops to fill a half dozen Pacino movies. Safe is also rated R for a reason: Statham isn’t afraid to shoot guys in the head at close range, and though the film shies away from gore, there’s something unexpected and kind of shocking about the way he’s willing to take care of business. He’s heroic, but we’re not quite sure if he’s a hero. In fact, this is the first time since The Bank Job where one of Statham’s films can be categorized as a regular action movie instead of carrying the sometimes-dismissive baggage of being referred to as a “Statham action movie.”

There’s nothing particularly cinematic about the way Safe is depicted. Even its New York City backdrop is hidden for the most part (rumor has it the film was shot in Philadelphia), so we rarely get any real sweeping sense of scope or even the kind of loving city identification Affleck heaps on any of his Boston-set films. But even with that, and the tired concept of a child with a magic ability as the centerpiece, Safe manages to be an entertaining thriller with a few twists that will leave Statham fans satisfied. Until next time…

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We’ve been hearing quite a few details on Fast Six over recent months, with the latest bit of info coming from Dwayne Johnson who confirmed shooting will begin in May, but it will only be for the sixth film (the original intention was to shoot 6 and 7 back-to-back).

Johnson also said the story will be going international, with filming set to take place in the UK and Germany. Given the European setting we can probably expect a few British and German actors to join the ranks, but Jason Statham won’t be one of them.

From Twitch:

Back in October Twitch broke word that Universal was looking into shooting the sixth and seventh entries in the Fast And The Furious in Europe and that they had approached Jason Statham to join the franchise. Things have been proceeding on the films since but, alas, they will be moving along without Statham. The two sides were unable to work things out and the Euro-Fast (not the actual title, by the way, at least I certainly hope not) will be proceeding without Statham’s services.

Statham teaming up with Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, and Dwayne Johnson for Fast Six would have been an action fans wet dream, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like it will be happening.

Story details on the sequel haven’t been revealed, although Universal chairman Adam Fogelson said he hopes to transform the street-racing franchise into a series of heist films to attract a wider audience. The thinking is that more people will turn up if they are action films with cars, rather than car films with action.

Fogelson also said Dwayne Johnson (who played a federal agent assigned to track down the Fast Five gang) will be “integral to the action in Fast Six.” Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, and most of the gang will return, as will director Justin Lin. Fast Five screenwriter Chris Morgan is currently working on the script, and Universal has set a release date for May 24, 2013.

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Back in 2000, Nicolas Cage owned a rare Action Comics #1, one of the most famous comic books in the world because it contained the first appearance of Superman. The comic was stolen from him and vanished without a trace until 2011, when it was found in a storage locker and sold at auction for $2.1 million at an auction last November. Now Night at the Museum writers Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon have written a script based on the incident, and Lionsgate has picked up the idea. More after the jump.

The aptly-named Heat Vision has the story, but they’re unsure whether Cage will play himself or if another actor will portray him in this screen adaptation of real life events. Apparently Jason Statham’s name came up for an undisclosed role, but other sources claim he’s not involved. Mysterious. This sounds pretty awesome, and as Heat Vision notes, remarkably similar to Kyle Newman’s Star Wars movie Fanboys, in which a group of friends attempt to break into Skywalker Ranch to see an early copy of Episode I. Hopefully Cage will end up starring as himself, because as his recent appearance on “Saturday Night Live” indicates, he’s fairly self-aware these days.

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Ghost Rider 3 could move forward

Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor are two of the most visually interesting directors working in the business today. The directors of Crank and Gamer bring a gritty, guerrilla-style of filmmaking to their work, oftentimes donning roller blades or attaching consumer cameras to self-made rigs to get the shots they’re looking for. Their new film Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance roars into theaters on Friday, and The Playlist had a chance to speak with the directors about possible sequels to some of their movies.

Neveldine told the site that Nic Cage is interested in reprising his role of Johnny Blaze for Ghost Rider 3, but they’ll have to wait and see how Spirit of Vengeance does at the box office before making any final decisions. He also commented on the status of Crank 3D:

“It’s gonna happen, it’s gonna be written, and it will be 3D,” Neveldine assures the fans, though they claim they’re still spitballing ideas, claiming they’re fueled by, “Beer, tequila, talking about ideas, doing whatever the fuck we want to do, and trying to push it through the system.” Taylor adds, ” ‘Crank’ is destined to be a trilogy. And then maybe we’ll go for the prequels the way ‘Star Wars‘ did.”

I loved the first Crank movie, but even I thought that Crank 2: High Voltage went too far over the top. What are your thoughts on the series? Are you looking forward to more craziness from Chev Chelios?

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William Goldman, the living legend screenwriter who wrote All The President’s Men, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Princess Bride, is 80 years old, but that isn’t stopping him from working in Hollywood. Back in 1986, he wrote a film called Heat – no relation to the Michael Mann classic – that was based on Goldman’s own novel. Now he’s writing another adaptation of that same story for the big screen, but instead of Burt Reynolds headlining, this time it’s Jason Statham.

The story sounds like Hitch for badasses, in which a mercenary makes guys look tough instead of romantic. When his escort friend is beaten by a Vegas high roller, the mercenary (Statham, in this case) goes after him to get revenge.

Shooting starts by the end of the year in France. This reads like a typical Statham project, but there’s one other key player here: Brian De Palma is directing. Admittedly, the guy’s had some bad films in the past decade, but maybe a straight-up action revenge story is what he needs to get his blood pumping again.

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Lionsgate has released the first teaser trailer for The Expendables 2. Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Chuck Norris, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Jean Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger all star, and as the cast is the whole selling point for this film they’re all mentioned by name.

Watch the teaser below:

The Expendables are back and this time it’s personal… Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Lee Christmas (Lee Statham), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren),Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) — with newest members Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth) and Maggie (Yu Nan) aboard — are reunited when Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) enlists the Expendables to take on a seemingly simple job. The task looks like an easy paycheck for Barney and his band of old-school mercenaries.

But when things go wrong and one of their own is viciously killed, the Expendables are compelled to seek revenge in hostile territory where the odds are stacked against them. Hell-bent on payback, the crew cuts a swath of destruction through opposing forces, wreaking havoc and shutting down an unexpected threat in the nick of time — six pounds of weapons-grade plutonium; enough to change the balance of power in the world. But that’s nothing compared to the justice they serve against the villainous adversary who savagely murdered their brother. That is done the Expendables way.

The sequel, directed by Simon West (The Mechanic, Con Air), will be released August 17, 2012.

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A few days ago Hasbo announced their intentions to move forward with Transformers 4, and were in “active discussions” with Paramount, Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg.

Following this Variety ran a report which said Shia LaBeouf won’t be returning, however Jason Statham’s name “has been bandied about by sources close to the production” as the new lead and the plan by Paramount was to shoot Transformers 4 and 5 back-to-back. Now, thanks to the power of the internet, both Jason Statham and Michael Bay have addressed the speculation.

Firstly Statham (who is romantically involved with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, so was probably a frequent visitor to the Dark of the Moon set) told MTV:

“You know, I don’t know how those things start. You read them. Someone told me about it. [But] the internet is a dangerous place,” he laughed. “There’s a lot of stuff out there.”

Not to say that Statham would be completely opposed to a “Transformers” movie: “I’ve got a lot of stuff in front of me, but Michael Bay is a talented man. This last one just made a billion dollars around the world, so people like his films. He’s a talented man.”

Actors playing coy is nothing new, but director Michael Bay is known for telling things how it is (like he did when Paramount first set a 2011 release date for Dark of the Moon), and he took to his website to deny the speculation.

I am currently not talking to Paramount on T4 and T5 despite reports. I’m looking at a lot of possibilities coming my way right now weighing options. Most likely going to be doing the low budget Pain and Gain, a true story crime thriller. It’s a very quick shoot and quite funny. Also just finishing the 3 disc set of the Transformer trilogy.

Michael

This doesn’t mean Bay won’t enter talks at some point, as i’m sure Hasbro and Paramount will want Bay involved with the Transformers franchise going forward, whether as director or producer.

As for Pain and Gain, it’s a $20m budget thriller which focuses on extortion and abductions in the Florida criminal underworld. I’m sure this will be a breath of fresh air for Bay having worked more than 5 years solidly on the Transformers movies. It’ll also give him the chance to focus more on an actual story, instead of just destroying cities.

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To answer the question you’re probably asking, yes – action fans should be pleased with Killer Elite. It’s got more story to it than many other selections in the genre, but just because it has more plot doesn’t mean it actually has anything to say. For me, the best action films either offer something interesting to think about (Inception, the Bourne films) or are paper-thin excuses to jump from one action sequence to the next (see: every Tony Jaa movie ever made). In terms of Jason Statham movies, Killer Elite falls squarely in the middle of these extremes, more akin to The Bank Job than The Transporter.

There’s an interesting line of dialogue that comes late in the film, when a government agent seemingly captures Jason Statham and Clive Owen and says, “That’s what we love about you lot – you only care about the action.” I’m guessing this line spoke directly to much (if not all) of the audience for Killer Elite. Personally, I judge most action films on whether or not they meet one strict criterion: does it show me something I’ve never seen before? Here’s a sweeping generalization: oftentimes the plot, characters, and visual effects are interchangeable in this genre, so, for me, the devil is in the details. One fight scene, car chase, or unexpected reveal can separate these movies from their brethren; in short, give me something memorable or GTFO. Killer Elite has two things I’ve never seen: Jason Statham’s character uses a loaf of bread as a silencer for his gun at one point, and there is a sequence (shown in the trailer) in which Statham fights a guy while strapped to a chair. So, on some level, I’d consider this movie a success.

So there’s no confusion, I’ll sum up my feelings with a phrase I’ve come to despise: I liked this movie for what it was. Normally, I think that assessment is taking the lazy way out, trivializing the filmmaker by implying he/she set the bar lower than a “normal” movie. But when a film like this is so clearly trying to be a certain thing, there’s nothing wrong with judging it as such. Action scenes aside, the rest of the movie was far from the failure I anticipated. Unlike something like The Expendables, which is loud, over the top, and just plain stupid, Killer Elite operates in a far more realistic world (as it should, considering it’s based on true events). This is espionage, not a Stallone-era shoot-em-up where the person with the biggest gun wins. In fact, I’d argue there’s almost too much story told here; so much happens, the movie feels a lot longer than its runtime suggests.

The leads were all enjoyable to watch, though they didn’t share much screen time together. Statham turns in one of his better performances; the man’s not known for his great dramatic work, but he pulls that off just as well as the action beats here. It’s reassuring to see De Niro in a part like this again after his stretch attempting comedy in the Focker movies. Clive Owen is fine – he plays a guy named Spike, so of course he wears a leather jacket to secret society meetings. He and Statham have an impressive brawl in the middle of the film that wasn’t quite as memorable as some other points in the movie, due mostly to director Gary McKendry’s over-reliance on shaky cam. Yvonne Strahovski (NBC’s “Chuck”) shows up as a love interest for Statham, but ultimately doesn’t have a lot to do. Though her backstory is expectedly cliched, she shows a lot more charm than typical action movie eye candy, and I’d like to see her spread her wings a bit with some larger roles. Try as any of these actors may, they’re still slaves to this film’s script, which offers its share of terrible dialogue. Some of my favorites:

“I’m done with killing.” “Maybe killing ain’t done with you.”
“That’s why we’re called The Feathermen – because our touch…is light.”
“B-I-N-G-f*ckin’-O.”
“Killing’s easy. Living with it is the hard part.”
“Everybody knows the rules: there are no rules!”

Killer Elite has its moments, but ultimately it’s a pretty forgettable outing in which the tight and economical action sequences play second fiddle to a story that drags a bit before reaching its easily predictable conclusion. Until next time…

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Clive Owen and Jason Statham have made careers for themselves kicking ass in a number of different action-thrillers over the years, but now some genius has decided to put both actors in the same movie.

In The Killer Elite not only do we have Clive Owen (+ mustache) and Jason Statham trying to kill each other, we also get to see Robert De Niro taking some names.

Watch the trailer below:

Based on a true story, the film races across the globe from Australia to Paris, London and the Middle East in the action-packed account of an ex-special ops agent (Jason Statham) who is lured out of retirement to rescue his mentor (Robert De Niro). To make the rescue, he must complete a near-impossible mission of killing three tough-as-nails assassins with a cunning leader (Clive Owen).

Directed by Gary McKendry, the film also stars Yvonne Strahovski, Dominic Purcell, Aden Young, Ben Mendelsohn, Lachy Hulme, Firass Dirani, Grant Bowler and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and will be released September 23rd.

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Following the success of The Expendables last year ($274 million worldwide) a sequel moved swiftly into development, but it was decided Sylvester Stallone would not be directing the next film as he did the first.

After a lengthy search a director for the sequel has been found according to Deadline, and it’s Simon West who most recently directed the The Mechanic starring Jason Statham and Ben Foster, and also directed Con Air and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. He’s an action director, and that’s what the sequel requires.

Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews and Jet Li are all expected to return and Bruce Willis, who briefly appeared in the first film, confirmed earlier this year that he’ll have a larger role in the sequel (possibly as a villain).

There has also been talk of Jean-Claude Van Damme showing up in the next one after turning down a role in the original. Apparently he felt there was no substance or development to his character, however while promoting The Expendables Sly said he had spoken to Van Damme and there was some regret on his part for not appearing.

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