News

Jason Statham is a franchise unto himself. He tends to more or less play the same growly-voiced butt-kicking macho man over and over with superficial differences, like how his titular super-spy in "Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre" enjoys a fine wine. Or how his personal driver, Frank Martin, in "The Transporter" films is meticulous about keeping his suits clean and neatly pressed. You always know exactly what to expect from his films and there's a comfort in that. They embody the type of "Action Movies Your Dad Watches" that were the bread and butter of networks like TNT and TBS in the pre-streaming age of cable.

In recent years, Netflix has stepped in to meet that same demand with a fresh supply of original action films of ... let's just say varied quality. But why settle for Netflix's latest pale imitation of a well-established action property when you can get the...

Chicago – Not to be confused with Todd Haynes’s 1995 masterpiece featuring Julianne Moore in the performance of her career, “Safe” is a forgettable would-be blockbuster that puts star Jason Statham through the emotional wringer in order to justify a marathon of repetitive carnage. This is as predictable a star vehicle as one could imagine, yet the direction by Boaz Yakin is so strong that it nearly saves the material.

A sense of palpable tension pervades all 92 minutes of this fast-paced thriller and doesn’t end after the final fade-out. It seems like everyone in New York is conspiring to take down the film’s two protagonists: a former detective (Statham) and a pint-sized Chinese prodigy (Catherine Chan) kidnapped by thugs intent on exploiting her extraordinary math skills. The first half-hour of the picture is so oppressively doom-laden that it leads the audience to cheer on the bloodletting once it finally arrives.

Chicago – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 40 admit-two movie passes up for grabs to the advance screening of “Safe” with “The Transporter,” “Crank” and “Snatch” star Jason Statham!

“Safe,” which opens on April 27, 2012, also stars Catherine Chan, Chris Sarandon, Robert John Burke, James Hong, Anson Mount, Sándor Técsy, Joseph Sikora, Igor Jijikine, Reggie Lee, James Colby, Matt O’Toole, Jack Gwaltney and Jay Giannone from writer and director Boaz Yakin.

To win your free passes to the advance Chicago screening of “Safe” courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, get interactive with our unique Hookup technology directly below. That’s it! This advance screening is on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 7 p.m. in downtown Chicago. The more social actions you complete below, the higher yours odds of winning!

Note: You can enter for our “Safe” Hookup as well as our earlier “The Raven” Hookup,

but...