Shelter

When it comes to January movie releases, they usually leave a lot to be desired. Sure, this is the month when a lot of award favorites finally get their wide releases, but once you get past those, the pickings can get pretty slim. That’s why we need a January movie hero—someone who can shake us out of the same old routine and kick the year off with a solid punch. That’s where Jason Statham comes in. He’s the January hero we deserve, and this year’s entry, Ric Roman Waugh’s Shelter, once again proves he’s more than up for the job.

On a remote island off the coast of Scotland, at a deserted lighthouse, a man is quietly living the dream—just him and his dog, completely off the grid. His name is Mason (Jason Statham), though we don’t know that at first, and neither does a young girl named Jesse (Bodhi Rae Breathnach), who arrives once a week with her uncle to deliver supplies. That routine changes when a storm traps Jesse on the island. An injury forces Mason to take her to the mainland, where a security camera catches his face and blows his carefully constructed disappearance.

As it turns out, Mason used to be an assassin, and his sudden reappearance doesn’t sit well with a powerful figure played by Bill Nighy. A new killer is sent to clean up the mess—taking out both Mason and Jesse in the process. That’s not happening. What follows is a classic cat-and-mouse setup, and Mason, being the kind of mouse you really don’t want to chase, takes out anyone foolish enough to try and catch him. It’s exactly the kind of setup you want from a Statham movie, and exactly why people keep showing up for them.

Written by Ward Parry, Shelter keeps things simple and sticks to the basics, which works in its favor. The film takes its time early on, with a quieter first half-hour that adds weight to what’s coming. It wants you to understand Mason’s motivations and why he’s doing what he’s doing. There aren’t many surprises here, and while the action delivers, there’s also a fair amount of time spent on characters staring at screens and having fairly subdued conversations. For me, those moments never took away from the experience—they give you time to breathe before things kick back into gear.

What’s refreshing is that Shelter skips the campy fun and cheesy thrills Statham sometimes leans into, opting instead for a more serious tone. Sure, there are plenty of familiar action-movie tropes, including the highly trained killer who thought he was out but gets pulled back in. Statham is his usual reliable self, but he also brings a bit more sincerity this time around, which adds to the believability of the character. Don’t worry, though—the Statham we all love still shows up and hands out plenty of well-earned beatdowns.

Bodhi Rae Breathnach more than holds her own opposite Statham, and Bill Nighy is a fantastic villain, as he always is, elevating every scene he’s in. Shelter isn’t rewriting the action-movie rulebook, but it never gets boring either. More importantly, it reinforces something we already know: Jason Statham is a safe bet. A few more of these and we can start calling him the January Man, the guy you can count on to kicking off the year right, by kicking bad-guy ass.