Parents' Guide to Safe

Filmmaker Boaz Yakin's screenplay is taut and clever and might have been turned into a decent movie. He's created a new riff on the old Red Harvest/Yojimbo story of a lone stranger playing two warring families against one another, upping the stakes by adding a third group and the little girl character. But behind the camera, Yakin puts a great deal less thought into his story. He constantly makes the basest and most vulgar choices, starting with the horrible, shaky, nausea-inducing camerawork, which ruins the fight scenes.

Then there's a general queasy feeling you get watching poor little Catherine Chan involved in all these violent sequences, when, in real life, she wouldn't -- and shouldn't -- be allowed to see the finished film. Finally, Statham has chosen to cover up his usual English accent with a fake New York one, which serves to erase some of the charm that's usually associated with his characters. Overall, SAFE is terribly glum and resolutely average.