Another winter, another Statham action film
Over the last few years, Jason Statham has become the patron saint of early-year action escapism: The Beekeeper (January 2024), The Working Man (March 2025), and now Shelter (January 2026). The Beekeeper 2 is also reportedly set for a January 2027 release. There’s just something about Statham’s no-nonsense handling of baddies within simple (yet silly) plots that seems to resonate with audiences as a way to kick-off a new year. Shelter is better than it needed to be, but worse than it could’ve been. Exciting but iterative, yet elevated by the strength of Ric Roman Waugh’s direction and Statham’s charisma, Shelter provides just enough emotion and action to withstand its shortcomings.
Ric Roman Waugh (Shot Caller; Angel Has Fallen; Greenland) has established himself as a skilled helmsman of set pieces and the right director to elevate a forgettable B-movie into a “well that was better than I thought it would be” actioner. Having found success with Gerard Butler in a handful of superbly shlocky action films, Waugh has now found a similar aging UK-born protagonist in Statham. Shelter centers around a former MI6 agent, Michael Mason (Statham), now living in isolation on a remote Scottish isle, who rescues a girl, Jesse (Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Hamnet), from a raging storm as she attempts to bring Michael supplies. The need for medical supplies brings Michael back on the radar of British government officials, including Mason’s former spymaster boss, Manafort (Bill Nighy), and the new MI6 boss, Roberta (Naomi Ackie), who send forces after him, putting Jesse in extreme danger. If the setup sounds a bit like The Bourne Identity, you’re not wrong. Shelter draws a lot of inspiration from the Bourne franchise, even to a surprising near word-for-word degree in a handful of scenes.
Statham, now age 58 with a mostly gray beard, has arrived into a phase of his career in which he can play fatherly figures, albeit still the type of father figure with a “certain set of skills.” As such, Statham is able to carry the emotional weight of a caretaker while also dispensing with his usual array of violent justice. The action scenes are frenetic and sometimes innovative, but it’s also easy to tell where Waugh has spent most of his directorial skills. A two-car chase through the bumpy backgrounds of the English countryside, in particular, is one of Shelter’s highlights. The other highlights are mostly brief and fleeting: small moments of levity, or the manner in which a baddie is dispatched.
Had Shelter spent even more time increasing Mason’s body count, or pursuing a few themes beyond one or two scenes, the film would’ve been more memorable. As it is, Shelter’s script suggests in one early scene that the film will explore the disturbing effects of a surveillance state, only to ditch that commentary altogether as the movie progresses. These few moments of thematic exposition, combined with the semi-redundant but ultimately emotional buildup of Mason and Jesse’s relationship, do give Shelter some dramatic gravitas. So, depending on which aspects of Statham’s latest films interest you the most, mindless vigilante violence or layered justice-seeking thrills, you may be disappointed by Shelter’s serving size. Or perhaps you’ll be happy to receive a variety of tastes. Either way, there’s always next year.
—–
Shelter opens in theaters on Friday, January 30th.
