Safe (2012)

This is your typical Statham flick - bad guy who is really a good guy but for some reason has been doing seemingly bad things is put in a situation where he does the right thing in an incredibly bad-ass way. Nothing new on that front. This movie is a lot bigger than most of his films, instead of a cast of a few dozen, there are hundreds. The mechanics of the film - the lighting, cinematography, sound, continuity - are all very good and bespeak of a larger investment than most of his films. And the story is better too. In this film, Statham actually sounds like an American. This may be his best film. So, if you're a Jason Statham fan, watch this.
What I found really interesting, however, didn't really have anything to do with Statham. The plot of the movie revolves a Chinese gangster who in this age of ubiquitous electronics and computers doesn't trust them to keep track of his funds because he knows that anyone can steal them, so he uses a little girl named Mai, played wonderfully by Catherince Chan, to store his numbers. I find it very intriguing that the better technology gets, the safest way to store sensitive information is by not using any technology at all.
The second interesting feature of this film is the background of Luke Wright (Statham). After 9/11, the mayor of New York had to put almost all of his resources into dealing with the potential terrorist threat. He asked for help from the shadow government who was really running the country then and they sent the mayor two men to use in sensitive situations. One of these men was Wright who killed many criminals who were relatively high up the food chain. He was serving the mayor, but also an agenda from the people who sent him to NYC. At some point years later, Wright figures out that thanks to his actions, a cadre of dirty cops have filled in the vacancies in the insurance and extortion racket in NYC. He does the only thing he can, and goes to IA and narcs them out. I find the notion of a shadow government loaning out or giving away a super agent, think Bourne Identity here, to accomplish things that regular police officers can't do.
These ideas are not bad for an action flick. I would have loved to see them developed more, but then what they do in the sequel then?

Safe at IMDb