‘Shelter’ Review

A mysterious loner wants a fresh start, leading a blue collar life in a new place. Against his better judgment, he allows a good-hearted person to get close to him and, when danger inevitably comes from nefarious criminal elements, our loner taps into his violent past to make sure he and his unlikely companion make it out alive.

This synopsis can be applied to virtually every Jason Statham vehicle of the past fifteen years, with ‘Shelter’ being the latest in his Mad Libs-esque oeuvre, in which you just fill in various nouns – name, occupation, location, friend – sprinkle in consistent fight scenes, place Statham’s brooding movie star persona at the center and voila, you have a bankable action thriller.

In this way, ‘Shelter’ is a Jason Statham movie just like every other Jason Statham movie, the same story but with cozier sweaters. If that sounds like something you’ll like, then you’ll like this film. If not, watch something else.

In this go around, Jason Statham is Michael Mason, a mysterious recluse whiling away his time on a deserted island, living in a defunct lighthouse. His only connection to the outside world is Jessie (Bodhi Rae Breathnach), a precocious kid who, along with her uncle, drop supplies off at the island every week so Mason doesn’t have to leave himself. When a violent storm strands Jessie on Mason’s island with a broken and infected ankle, Mason must travel to the mainland to retrieve the necessary medical supplies. Of course Mason gets caught on a camera, triggering an MI6 hit squad who now knows exactly where to find him. With his life, and now the life of innocent Jessie in grave danger, Mason has to unleash all of his deadly talents that he developed as a professional ass-kicker in his past life to defeat all manner of bad guys, going all the way to the top of British intelligence.

There’s a comfort to Statham’s brand of Action-By-Numbers. There is no moral ambiguity, no deeper lessons. Everybody Statham kills is a bad guy, if only because Statham kills them. There are various plot threads, some of which pay off, some of which don’t, but who really cares? The filmmakers certainly don’t, as the audience keeps waiting for the disparate plots to meet one another and yet they hardly do. The biggest name actors, including a delightfully slimy Bill Nighy as a corrupt MI6 chief, hardly share a room together.

No, the goal here is to check off as many action movie checkboxes as possible, complete with the now mandatory night club fight scene in which guns go off but all of the surrounding party animals don’t realize anything is amiss until they themselves are struck by blood or bullets. Just as in so many Jason Statham films, if the story comes together in a way that pays off all of its dramatic and character arcs in meaningful ways, that’s just a bonus. If it doesn’t? You’re going to like it anyway, because Jason Statham punches and kicks and shoots his way through generic slop with the same commitment as in a smarter crime thriller.

In a world where so many action movies feel Disney-ified, with quippy one liners and winks to the audience, Jason Statham maintains his stoic, gruff tough guy persona. These are deadly stakes that demand a deadly serious tone, and Statham is the anchor for that entire ethos. In this way, as similar as each Statham vehicle is to one another, they feel so distinct from other mainstream action fare, and that is, I suppose, worth commending.

The question is not whether ‘Shelter’ is a good movie, but is it a good Jason Statham movie? Even then, I’m not so sure. It possesses neither the clever plotting of his Guy Ritchie collaborations nor the unintentional comedy of ‘The Beekeeper’.

So it may not be an exceptional Jason Statham movie, but it is a Jason Statham movie. If you’re like me and enjoy his hyper-serious action hero schtick, then you’ll enjoy ‘Shelter’. And if not, you already know you’re not going to watch this.

Shelter
Rated R for violence and some language.
Running Time: 1 hour and 47 minutes

Director Ric Roman Waugh
Writers Ward Parry
Stars Jason Statham, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Bill Nighy, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays
Rating R
Running Time 107 Minutes
Genres Action, Thriller