My guy Jason Statham out here year after year making affordable films that have what you want in them – him being a silent tough guy beating the brakes off of dudes. In his new movie Shelter, directed by Ric Roman Waugh, Statham plays a solitary man named Michael Mason who lives in a lighthouse in the Scottish Isles alone. His only human interaction is when his man and his niece drop off provisions for him each week. After a tragic event happens during a storm, the young girl, Jessie (Bodhi Rae Breathnach), ends up with Mason with an injured leg. While going to civilization to get medicine to treat her this opens up the movie from what starts as a quiet movie British movie about a man learning to reconnect with humanity and not give up on people by this adult and kid connecting instead becomes a movie that’s easily explained as what if James Bond left MI6 because he no longer agreed with the state’s actions and M (the male one) sends people to kill him because he’s using some crazy AI based computer program to spy on every citizen in the United Kingdom.
What’s really important is that we get to see Jason Statham mess people up for two hours. The movie is bringing nothing new to the table, but that doesn’t make it an enjoyable movie to watch. There’s been a lot of middle-aged men with middle school-aged proxy daughters who have to go through a harrowing adventure a bit much in the last fifteen years. Still, this one made me feel nostalgia for a ’90s classic – Léon, aka The Professional by Luc Besson. What did it was Breathnach’s Jessie, who, while just being a kid, is always bout that action when it’s time to the point where Mason needs to tell her to chill. It reminded me a little of Natalie Portman’s Mathilda and her desire to learn to be a professional assassin. Jessie doesn’t want to do that, but she becomes very protective of Mason even though he’s the last person who needs protection.
You have Bryan Vigier playing a man named James Workman, an MI6 agent sent to kill Mason, and he’s damn near the T-1000 in this film, with his ever-present presence in the movie killing everyone in his way to kill both Mason and Jessie. Sent by Steven Manafort (Bill Nighy), the head, then “former” head of MI6, who does well as the big bad of the film. He seemed to enjoy playing such a bad guy while not having to do much other than sit at a computer or on the phone and act annoyed that Mason survived. His character works by playing off every single idea of a spy master you might have, but elevated into an ’80s action animated series main villain.
Naomi Ackie, a favorite of mine, plays Roberta Frost, the former number 2 at MI6, and now the top person plays something that, honestly, I see a lot in movies and shows, especially stuff from the UK. The Black woman is good, she’s excellent at her job, she’s well-trusted but also trusted to the point where she must find out that those before her or her bosses are actually evil, and our hero is, in fact, justified in whatever actions they’re doing to survive. I liked the action set pieces in this film, as for the most part, the action is straightforward and easy to follow. You never get lost in which characters, such as Mason and Jessie, and who they are trying to avoid, and the character trying to get them, and all the people caught in the middle along the way. There were moments where the Mason and Workman’s fights felt like watching a great match of Tekken, and I don’t mean that as a negative. Quick and clear combinations with brutal holds and throws. Each attack felt like it hurt even though we know Statham’s Mason is going to win in the end.
Also, I should note some ruthless kills and gun violence in this movie. It could be thrilling for some and too much for others. I liked Shelter. It’s a movie that has some solid themes of people coming together and finding family in each other, while also being a solid action chase movie. It’s another Jason Statham banger early in 2026.
Rating: B
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