Safe

Movie Review: «Safe».

English Title: Safe.
Production: USA, 2011.
Release Date: 18.11.2011 (Ireland), 27.04.2012 (USA).
Russian Distributor: UPI (26.04.2012).
Official Website:
Genres: Action / Drama / Criminal / Thriller.
Director: Boaz Yakin.
Starring: Jason Statham, Catherine Chan, Robert John Burke.
Running Time: 94 minutes.

Keeping Safe

On the 27th of April, 2012 the new Crime Thriller opens in the U.S. It is titled Safe, Review of which will tell you about the new Action flick starring Jason Statham, where he has to bring in some dramatic performance to his usual brutal hero’s charm.

In 1994 a French thriller Leon (1994) directed by Luc Besson came to the theaters. Recently he released his new Producer’s project titled Lockout (2012), but in that old classics the main characters were presented by a duo consisting of a contract killer and a small 12-year-old girl, who became friends facing various misfortunes and formed a team to protect each other.

Since Luc Besson left the Gaumont Film company to do his own business in the EuropaCorp, he wanted to make a sequel, but former bosses possessing the license for Leon’s characters made everything to stop this from happening. However, his hopes were attended elsewhere. Kind of an American remake of Leon or a variation of the story is now presented by a scriptwriter and director Boaz Yakin, who staged the Safe (2012) film.

The American writer for such titles as The Punisher (1989), From Dusk till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999) and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) has been waiting for a long time for his star hour. During this time he has been working with various film genres and several times collaborated with Walt Disney Pictures. Boaz Yakin made his directoral debut in 1994, and later on he got a chance to work with producer Jerry Bruckheimer making the complex sports drama – Remembering the Titans (2000).

Safe is an Action movie, new Boaz Yakin’s creation, where he took over both the Director’s chair and the script to combine his skills in one project. The only thing he needed to start would be the production budget. The money came from experienced Producers: Dana Brunetti and Lawrence Bender, who runs his own company – Lawrence Bender Productions. The whole crew then had to feel that for these guys filming movies is business and they won’t stop, if a cutting costs procedure is needed.

The film was made with a relatively small 30 mln. USD bugdet making it possible to discover different ways to save resources without spoiling the action. It is even at times surprising, how the filmmakers here managed to cope with the motion picture still looking expensive with all the shooting, car chases and fighting sequences. Here Lawrence Bender is a real expert in providing intense special affects, while not spending too much.

His production experience started in 1989, and there were some projects, where he worked together with Boaz Yakin like in the new Safe film. Also previously he released such well-known movies as Pulp Fiction (1994), Kill Bill (2003-2004) and Inglourious Bastards (2009), whose total worldwide box office nearly reached 1 bln. USD. As for Dana Brunetti, he has also had his sleeping hit earlier titled The Social Network (2010).

The Best Bodyguard

Read on further about the story and characters of the Safe film.