Jason Statham lives in a Scottish lighthouse when we meet him in “Shelter” and that’s a pretty good analogy for Statham’s usual movie role these days: Tall, cold, alone, tough, quiet and only intermittently illuminating.
Statham may appear to be just a grim-faced lighthouse keeper, but he’s really a hero laying low, like he was when he was cosplaying a construction laborer in “Working Man ” and a honey collector in “The Beekeeper.” Statham is Hollywood’s go-to guy for sidelined-waiting-to-pounce-again action stars. Gruff, with a heart of gold and a strong moral compass, he’s our lighthouse: Protecting us from danger and guiding us to safety while being very, very distant and very beard-forward.
This time, you’ll notice that the lighthouse isn’t actually working, so Statham is just a dude off the grid. He has a lovely dog, so we know he’s cool. He draws and plays chess, so we know he’s smart and arty, too. But there’s no internet, no Netflix. Just a lot of staring at the horizon in a big coat.
When a young woman who has been delivering his lighthouse with supplies — maybe more whiskey than Cheerios — suddenly needs his help, he’s thrust back into the modern world. And it gets worse: A whole lot of folk want him dead. The hunt is on.
Turns out, Statham’s character is a lethal former MI6 operative and he’s part of a covert, extra-judicial conspiracy that goes straight up to the British prime minister. Has he been hiding out for a decade on a Scottish rock because he did something bad? Or good? (Remember, he has a sweet dog.)
Bodhi Rae Breathnach, looking not unlike a young Saoirse Ronan, plays the young girl and she’s marvelous, a talent to watch. Bill Nighy plays a venal spycraft master who also is surprisingly good at computer coding. For his part, Statham is classic Statham, never getting out of first gear. His dog emotes more.
Statham has always been an artist who uses his fists to express himself and “Shelter” is all about letting that inner Picasso out. Some of the deaths he inflicts here are done by boat oar, martini glass stem, industrial hook, boulder, fire, fork, factory chain and nail gun.
Ward Parry’s screenplay is really just a jumble of other action movie tropes, with plenty of military-speak like “kill on sight” and “eliminate” and he leans into the tired “True Grit” to “The Last of Us” theme of lone wolf and cub. “Stay down and hold on,” is some of our hero’s best advice to his new ward.
The swiftness with which the girl and Statham bond is quite sudden. “Just promise me you’re not going to die,” she wails in a line that only could exist in the movies. One says to the other: “I have to save you.” The other replies: “You saved me already.” Will anyone please save us from this drivel?
Director Ric Roman Waugh has a nice, gritty visual style and the fists and bullets land hard here, less stylish balletic and more thumpt thump. There’s a car chase through the countryside that’s all straining steel and revving engines and a sequence in a London nightclub — every action movie apparently needs one — that shows off close-quarter murder beautifully choreographed as clueless dancers sway.
“Shelter” is everything you expect a Jason Statham movie to be, no more and no less. Now we just wait until the next one, when the gruff but amiable dog surfing instructor next door turns out to have a secret past, an English accent and an ability to kill people with a nail gun.
“Shelter,” a Black Bear Pictures release in theaters Jan. 30, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for violence and some language. Running time: 107 minutes. Two stars out of four.
