Gimme Shelter

 

The start of another year means it's time for the annual "Jason Statham is a retired killing machine trying to live a quiet life but being forced to start stacking obituaries" movie. The typically nondescript title of this year's offering is Shelter and Stath's former special forces badass is called Michael Mason. When the British government agency that he used to drop bodies for comes calling at his remote Scottish lighthouse he is forced to take action, something that is complicated by the presence of a young orphan girl named Jessie (Bodhi Rae Breathnach). While our protagonist and his reluctant charge tear across the countryside, Naomi Ackie (criminally underused here) and Bill Nighy (putting in just enough effort to get by) scheme against each other at Spy HQ. 

Jason Statham movies can essentially be judged on three criteria; Does he get to do cool action? Are the bad guys formidable enough? Is the plot and dialogue entertainingly cheesy rather than just eyerollingly bad? Shelter gets a pass on all three.

Action wise, the scale isn't huge but we do get to see our leading man hit all the beats. There's some running around with a gun, a very solid car chase and, most prominently, a bunch of fisticuffs. The hand-to-hand stuff is more in your face than flashy, as is the style of director Ric Roman Waugh, and has a solid heft to it. The final throwdown in particular is bonecrunchingly satisfying and has an inventive finish.

For the action to hit home, Jason needs decent foes to go against. He may have a different name and (slightly different) backstory in each movie but it's hard not to think of every character he plays as roughly the same dude. Consequently, he needs adversaries that match up to his previous movies. One of the reasons last year's A Working Man was such a disappointment was that the low rent gangster foes felt like a comedown from the SWAT teams and kill squads our Cockney action man usually deals with. Fortunately we are back in the territory of government backed elite soldiers here, although not on the same scale as something like The Beekeeper. Particularly fun is Bryan Vigier as a killer agent billed as a twenty years younger version of Statham who pursues our heroes Terminator style throughout the film, leading to a handful of entertaining confrontations.

Despite the movie's fairly grounded look, the plot doesn't let reality intrude too much on the action. This is the kind of film where you can nip down to London from the north of Scotland while your mate waits in the local boozer, and said boozer's wi-fi can be used to hack secure government servers. The over earnest dialogue also elicits a chuckle as Statham dispenses gruff wisdom to his young companion, such as how to hold a knife for stabbing efficiency and to never operate a gun from a "place of fear". 

Speaking of fear, there is always the worry that a tag along child in an action movie will be annoying. There is one scene where she whines about being a bad person because she has watched Stath dispatch people like a postman delivering letters, but mostly she keeps her head down and handles things like a trooper. The way she takes everything in her stride is completely unrealistic, but in a film like this it's definitely the way to go. 

So, with plenty of action, suitable punching bags, and a pleasingly dumb script, Shelter is a solid Statham flick. It doesn't exactly push the boundaries of action cinema, but an old-fashioned, light on the CG, mid-budget ass-kicker is always a pleasant distraction. 

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