Safe is suitably frantic and violent but verges on ridiculousness at times. It's hard to believe, especially in a city as densely populated as New York, that the characters could engage in the sort of violence that they repeatedly do and manage to largely avoid police interference.
Luke Wright (Jason Statham), a sanitation worker, is a fighter in unsanctioned NY cage fights. He is a somewhat passive fighter and lets another fighter hit him more than he should. Offering only the most cursory of resistance he still wins the fight. We then see him in a tense standoff with a mid level organized crime yokel who reminds him that he was supposed to take a dive. Both the yokel and his backer, a Russian-American crime boss not known for mercy, lost money on the fight. Wright heads home to try to get his wife out of town but it's too late. The Russians, led by the boss' depraved son, (who really lays on the accent thick and chews up the scenery) have already tortured and murdered his wife. Mercifully and effectively this is shown offscreen. The Russians consider killing Wright but he offers them no resistance. Disappointed that they can't hurt him anymore, the Russians tell Wright that they may kill him in the future or may not but they will definitely kill any friends he makes or any relatives they can dig up. Evidently like any evil overlord worth the name, the Russians want to make Wright suffer. And like most evil overlords they commit the cardinal sin of leaving an enemy alive. A tear rolls down Wright's cheek.
Uncle Han decides to send Mei to NYC where men loyal to him are in a battle with the same Russian Mafia who destroyed Wright's life. She has a long number to memorize. Should she fail him he will murder her mother. But the Russians already know of this wunderkind and have their own plans for her. And through a series of unlikely events Mei winds up on the radar of a suicidal Wright. Deciding not to kill himself Wright dedicates himself to Mei's protection. And of course we learn that Wright was never a garbage man or (just) a cage fighter but something much more deadly. And now he's got a purpose. This didn't quite have the righteous anger or star power of the similar Man on Fire with Denzel Washington but it wasn't the worst way to waste time. It has lots of violence and moves quickly but ultimately is a forgettable if occasionally enjoyable flick. Chris Sarandon has a part.
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Contraband
Unlike Safe, Contraband is as much of a drama film as an action film. Wahlberg has a love interest and the film does ask you to use your brain a little bit more, even as it employs a great many common tropes such as One Last Job, You Were Like a Brother to Me, Putting the Band Back Together and so on. But even as the film does ask you to engage a bit more, it still is rather predictable. How you might feel about this will determine if this is a film you care about watching. It was set and shot in New Orleans but the film's lead actors generally do not attempt a Louisiana accent.
Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) is a hard working New Orleans home alarm installer who gives people good service and doesn't try to rip them off. He's married to Kate (Kate Beckinsale) and has two boys with her. His best friend Sebastian (Ben Foster) runs a local construction company.
But Kate has a younger brother Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) who likes to live on the wild side. Coming back into the US on a drug smuggling trip, to avoid detection by the Coast Guard, Andy dumps the cocaine in the ocean. He thinks that's the smart move. However his boss, the nervously malevolent Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi) doesn't see it that way. He wants his money.
Chris is a former (almost legendarily devious) smuggler who went straight. He stops by to see Briggs to see if Briggs will be reasonable about the loss and take less than full value. Loss is part of the business risk after all. But Briggs is profanely disrespectful and does not budge from his original position. Andy has two weeks to come up with the full value of the lost package or Briggs will kill him. And then in Briggs' mind the debt will pass to Chris and Kate. And if they can't pay Briggs will kill them but not before taking out some payment in trade from the delectable Kate.
There's a Bob Seger song that I like titled "Still the Same". One lyric stanza reads
You always won every time you placed a bet/
You're still damn good/No one's gotten to you yet/
Every time they were sure they had you caught/
You were quicker than they thought/
You'd just turn your back and walk
The enjoyment in Contraband comes from watching Wahlberg attempt to make these lyrics come true. John Singleton once said Wahlberg reminded him of James Cagney and you can definitely see that here. If you like heist films check this out.
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Brighton Rock
Rose is quite obviously desperate for someone, anyone to pay attention to her. In a sad, very depressing scene she has to listen as her obviously uncaring (and abusive?) father bargains a fair brideprice for her with the maleficent Pinkie, who intends to marry the underage Rose to forestall any chance of testimony against him. Actually whenever I see Rose, I expect that Eleanor Rigby should be playing. It's a very religious film , not so much in the imagery though there is that but in the conversations between Pinkie and Rose about heaven and hell. Pinkie and Rose are both Catholics.
Pinkie is quite adamant that there is hell but couldn't care less about heaven. He has a way of speaking that constantly belittles Rose and a few times it looks as if he's not above hitting her. At the same time while Rose is enthralled by and deeply in love with Pinkie, Pinkie is fascinated by her, even if that fascination is almost wholly based in contempt.
Look for current Game of Thrones actor Nonso Anozie as Dallow, a member of Pinkie's gang who starts to realize that Pinkie is not all there. Andy Serkis has a small but important role as Mr. Colleoni, the most powerful gangster in Brighton and a man who intends to keep that distinction. This is a VERY dark noir indeed but it's not very violent. I liked the acting here. I liked this film and thought it was very worthwhile. It throws a few curveballs at the viewer's head and like all good curveballs they don't necessarily break when or where you think they should. This looks, feels and sounds like a fifties or sixties movie. It doesn't have hyperactive camera work or crushing sound. It assumes that a scene can last for a while and not lose the viewer's interest. The ending will stay with you.
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Meeting Evil
John (Luke Wilson) is a visibly depressed real estate professional (realtor?) who was unlucky enough to have all of his chips on the table when the bubble popped. He also just got fired. Bills have been piling up and he is about to lose the family home. He has been trying to hide this from his leggy wife Joanie (Leslie Bibb) and their son and daughter. John loses it when his family tries to cheer him up and snaps at them. Angered, his wife takes the kids to a previously planned outing: without John.
For a while the film flirts with the idea that Richie is either John's alter ego or indeed something supernatural. As the bodies start to pile up more secrets are revealed and a few twists that aren't really twists come to light. What could have been a subversion of the two tropes mentioned above falls into slavish worship of them to the point where they're extremely unrealistic-even for tropes. When John is arrested by the cops and desperately babbles about the scary black man who really committed all the mayhem we're supposed to feel for him because in this instance the stereotype really is true. Ho-hum.
Tracie Thorns and Muse Watson are mostly wasted as a pair of police officers tasked to investigate all the killings. Thorns and Bibb have a scene together that is virtually senseless.
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