May 4th

The most important thing to mention is that today is Star Wars Day! Naturally this means that I made a video, which you can check out here. Of course Friday's are all about reviews, so I suppose I should move on to that.

SPOILER WARNING

On Wednesday night I saw the movie Safe. This movie starred Jason Statham as Luke Wright, an ex cop whose life is in shambles until he risks everything to save a young girl named Mei, played by Catherine Chan. The first thing I want to note, because I found it interesting, was the choice to name the character Luke Wright, as if to point out to the audience that he is the good guy, the right guy. Just an interesting tidbit.

Luke is a trained killer but he has a conscience. When his cop buddies went dirty he told on them, and faced off with the Russian mob. The Russian mob killed his pregnant wife and then told him they'd kill anyone he tried to be nice to or make friends with, and they did. He becomes a bum, doesn't talk to anyone, until one day he sees Mei on the subway running from the same mob guys.

Mei is a young Chinese girl with a photographic memory and an incredible knack for math. She's picked up by the Chinese mob (the Triads) and brought to New York to be a sort of lock box for important information and to run facts and figures. Their boss is too suspicious to use a computer because it leaves a trail. Life is tough but manageable, for Mei, until they have her memorize this long list of numbers. As her handler is driving her to the location of the next set of numbers the Russian mob attacks the car and Mei goes on the run.

Even though Luke has spent years ignoring people, seeing the Russians chasing Mei stirs something in him and he fights for her. He decimates the Russians that were following her and then the corrupt cops who also try to pick her up. It becomes obvious that Luke is more than just a cage fighter or a cop, he's a trained killer. He and Mei become fast friends and figure out that the long list of numbers is the combination to a Triad safe full of money they were going to give to the cops in return for a disk with the information of all the cops and politicians who were on the take from the Russian mob and the Triads. The Russians want the money as well, and so do the cops, so everyone is after Mei.

From there on out the plot is pretty basic. The cops try to work with and cheat both the Russians and the Triads. Luke plays them all against each other quite effectively. He uses the Russians to figure out what the code is for, he uses the cops to get the money from the safe, and then he uses the corrupt politicians to kill the Triads once he's taken the money from the cops. There are a few car chases, a handful of shootouts, and a few fist fights here and there. In the end Mei saves his life by killing the other trained killer that was a part of this whole mess. They return the money to the Triads but keep the disk to keep everyone from hunting them down. Then Luke and Mei drive off into the sunset, safe for now.

Honestly, it wasn't exactly a very interesting plot, and I was able to predict where the movie was going most of the time. The writing wasn't brilliant either, it didn't have the witty dialogue that will cause me to adore a movie with a really weak plot. That said, it did have some redeeming qualities. The way it began with the moment Luke saw Mei and then jumped back in time and worked up to that point again was interesting. It was also nice how it built Luke's story as you went along, until you'd figured out that he was an ex-cop not just a cage fighter, and then not just an ex-cop but a trained killer. Then there were the action scenes, which were very well done. Of course you'd expect nothing less from Jason Statham. If you're looking for a movie with a feel good story and an awful lot of shooting and fighting, then Safe is absolutely for you.

May the 4th be with you.