Jason Statham delivers yet again

The new action-thriller Shelter stars Jason Statham as [deep grumbly stoic ass-kicker voice] ex-special-operative Michael Mason. Would you believe Mason has a shadowy past? And even though he’s living off the grid in the Scottish isles, a bunch of dudes now want him dead? Plus he has to protect the life of an innocent young girl caught in the crossfire? Luckily, he’s a beast in combat, even if all he has is a pointy shard of wood he grabbed off the chair he just broke over a guy’s head.

Statham, who also produced Shelter, isn’t reinventing the formula he honed in hits like Wrath of Man, The Beekeeper, and A Working Man. Really, why would he? While A-list names like Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael B. Jordan, and Timothée Chalamet vie for Oscar greatness, and top-of-their-game talent like Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson have been lured to excessively epic-sized projects for excessively epic-sized pay checks, Statham has dutifully worked off to the side at a certain scale. (See: mid-budget January and August releases.)

Based on role selection over the last decade alone, he seems to live to serve — whether it’s showing up for the best fight in a Fast & Furious movie or leading his own dialogue-light cat-and-mouse thrillers. Leaning into his martial-arts skill set has served him in return: Nary a week goes by without one of Statham’s movies (even maligned schlock like Meg 2: The Trench) commanding the streaming charts on Prime Video, Peacock, or Netflix.

The actor delivers yet again in Shelter, the same way the guy running the broiler at Peter Luger Steak House delivers on a slab of meat cooked to order. Neither cheap fast food nor the greatest meal you will ever taste, the Statham Special maintains standards that are a cut above. Helmed by stuntman-turned-director Ric Roman Waugh (Angel Has Fallen), Shelter is sharply paced, violent as heck, palpably shot on location, and laced with Surrogate Dad Pathos.

Irish actor Bodhi Rae Breathnach, fresh off her work in Chloé Zhao’s Oscar-nomination-heavy Hamnet (!), turns Shelter into more of a Lone Wolf and Cub/The Professional two-hander than the usual Statham vehicle. But as soon as the threats loom large, our guy is in Terminator mode, ripping through goons and looking for answers. Waugh knows just when to cut back to Breathnach to freak us out: “Oh yeah, there’s a teenager in the room too!”

Shelter begins with a mostly unrelated tragedy: one morning, as Jessie (Breathnach) and her dad deliver groceries to Mason’s isolated lighthouse home, a storm sweeps in and capsizes their boat. The father is killed, while Mason dives in just in time to rescue Jessie. To nurse her back to health, Mason heads to the mainland — where the Big Brother surveillance state quickly detects him. Bill Nighy plays Mason’s former handler at a secret military agency, which Mason refused to kill for a decade prior, so now Nighy wants to snuff him out. Sadly, this means Mason and Jessie flee the Scottish seaside, but not before we get Statham’s version of the Skyfall climax. Armored commandos are no match for Mason’s well-timed boat hooks to the throat.

Shelter’s plot is paint-by-numbers, and the character work is archetypical — as you might expect, the reluctant caretaker’s harsh exterior melts a bit by the time credits roll. Still, Waugh’s dedication to shooting all around the UK makes it an unlikely companion to the 28 Years Later movies: Danger and death is everywhere. It’s quickly apparent that no tea time is safe as long as MI5 is being manipulated to hunt Mason down, while rogue hit men have their own agenda. Shelter falls more in line with Wrath of Man’s brutality, yet still finds room for some hyper-choreographed gun-fu that puts the 58-year-old action star’s limberness to the test.

In an era where it takes an “event” to get most people to the multiplex, Shelter’s serviceable-craftsman approach to action moviemaking probably translates to a muted theatrical run. But the theatricality of the movie — of all Statham-centered action movies, really — is the reason it will succeed on airplanes or Prime Video or the next cinematic afterlife. Statham has never actually starred in a straight-to-streaming product. He makes legit movies — with sheen, with angles, with a beating heart — that make them obvious “Play Next” fodder for whenever TV binge-watchers finish a season of Reacher. They’re the same pulp-paperback action-story style as the Jack Reacher novels, only much, much better. And that’s why, no matter what the costumes look like or what silly cover-up occupation Statham has at the beginning of a movie, I will always be ready for a Statham character’s “one final mission.”

Shelter is in theaters now.