Safe Movie 2012

Movie Information

Directed by: Boaz Yakin

Produced by: Lawrence Bender, Dana Brunette.

Written by: Boaz Yakin

Starring: Jason Statham

Music by: Mark Mothersbaugh

Cinematography: Stefan Crapsey

Studio: IM Global, Automatic Entertainment, Lawrence Bender Productions, Trigger Street Productions.

Distributed by: Lionsgate

Release Date: November 18, 2011 (Ireland) |April 27, 2012 (United States)

Country: United States

Language: English

Budget: $30 million

Plot: A former NYPD cop rescues a 12-year-old, abducted Chinese girl, then must fight the Triads, Russian Mafia and high-level corrupt New York City politicians as well as police

Production: Safe was announced on May 6, 2010. The film is the first in a three-film distribution deal between IM Global (who also produced and fully financed) and Lions gate, the other two being Pete Travis' Dread and Simon West's Protection. Lawrence Bender Productions, Trigger Street Productions, Automatic Entertainment, and 87eleven Action Design also produced. On a $30 million budget, principal photography took place from October to December 2010 in Philadelphia and New York City. Filming scenes in Philadelphia on Broad Street was done on the nights and early mornings of November 17th, 18th and 19th. A class from a Catholic School in downtown Philadelphia was used for a scene depicting a class in China. The film premiered on November 18, 2011 in Ireland. In the United States, the film was scheduled to be released on October 28, 2011, and March 2, 2012, but was eventually pushed back to April 27, 2012.

Reception: Safe has garnered mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 54% of critics have given the film a positive review, with 25 being positive out of a total of 46 reviews counted. The film fared only slightly better with the website's hand-picked 'top critics', which has a score of 57%. The site's consensus says that "while hard-hitting and violently inventive, safe ultimately proves too formulaic to set itself apart from the action thriller pack -- including some of its star's better films." Peter Travers, the film critic for Rolling Stone, gave the film 2 stars out of a possible 4, and said that "the trouble with Safe is that you know where it's going every step of the way". He also added that "Between the fists, kicks, bullets, car chases and broken trachea, the movie could have milked the sentiment of that relationship until you puked. But Statham and the scrappy Chan play it hard. The restraint becomes them. Statham is still playing it safe in Safe, but vulnerability is showing through the cracks.". Claudia Pug of USA Today gave the film a moderately positive review, saying that "Yakin's slick direction, marked by quick cuts, unstinting energy and a lack of sentimentality, makes the action scenes satisfying," but thought the dialogue was "riddled with clichés." Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times scored the film 3/5, saying "Yakin gives his star plenty of room to look mean, think fast, drive faster, punch, quip, mow down and charismatically bond with the most imperiled child character in screen memory.