Safe
Direction: Boaz Yakin
Cast:  Jason Statham, Catherine Chan
Rating: **
If it’s Jason Statham, it means action, action and more dumbed-down action. The story and other such niceties hardly matter. This time around, the Transporter star portrays a former garbage collector (a euphemism for hard-nosed cop) and down-on-his-luck prizefighter.

Quite conveniently, the brutal bruiser finds a new lease of life when he must protect an Oriental math whiz (Chan). The villains du jour are the Chinese triad, the Russian mafia and a caboodle of corrupt New York police officers. Whew!

The whole mega-violent project smacks of cynical emptiness. The action set pieces, including a shootout on a subway train, are as hackneyed as they come. At times, the body count resembles a war zone.

Safe is avoidable, unless you’re a glutton for jaw-dislocating punishment.