Jason Stathamhas been in an outrageous number of movies, including a litany of sequels that don’t quite measure up to one another equally. Across his storied career, the English actor has lent his trademark raspy voice and action scene talents to multiple franchises, includingtheFast and Furiousseries,The Expendables, and theTransporterfilms.
AcrossJason Statham’s many films, he tends to play some version of the same character – A tough-as-nails British criminal with a flippant attitude and a talent for violence. He’s become quite prolific for his time in various sequels, though some of them sell his particular brand of gritty action fantasy better than others.
There are fewmovie series that get worse with every film, as the typical adage that the sequel is always worse is usually bucked as a trend to some degree. However, it’s undeniable that by the time ofExpend4bles, the tired legacy action franchise had already run its course, easily being both the worst movie of the bunch and of Jason Statham’s sequels in general.
Releasing a whopping nine years after the previous entry in the series,Expend4blesdoesn’t even try to hide the fact that the novelty of the franchise has already long worn off. Considering he was willing to stick with the series to the bitter end, it can never be said that Statham isn’t at the very least loyal to his films.
For an audacious copycat ofJawsthat released multiple decades after the foundational blockbuster, it’s almost insulting thatThe Megever got a sequel in the first place. Somehow, Statham was persuaded to return to a film franchise that had exactly one idea, making a killer shark bigger by way of prehistoric life, for a sequel that sinks quite literally.
At the very least,Meg 2: The Trenchis worthy of praise for how hilariously dumb it is, as Statham quips “See ya later, chum” after kicking a bad guy into a shark’s mouth. But jumping the shark is the least of the film’s worries, as it represents an almost impressive pinnacle of cinematic stupidity.
The estranged, reviled sibling of theFast & Furiousfranchise,Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shawis a spinoff that even the most easily entertained fans are quick to insult. Statham stars opposite Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as one half of the classic opposites buddy cop duo, tasked with taking down Idris Elba’s sci-fi villain.
TheFast and Furiousmovies' move from crimeand into the realm of high-flyingMission Impossible-style action could be swallowed by many, butFast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shawtakes things a bridge too far by taking an exit into straight-up science fiction territory. That’s not even to mention that Hobbs and Shaw have negative chemistry as a leading pair.
IfFast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shawis the cutting edge of theFast & Furiousseries' heel turn away from grounded street car racing,F9is the moment they officially stopped pretending to be anything but a spectacle action franchise. Bringing the series to the most ridiculous heights it has ever seen, with action scenes that sound like a five-year-old came up with them.
Statham’s presence starts to seem hilariously pedestrian, out of his element as Dom’s crew ends up racing to literal outer space.F9isn’t the moment the series jumped the shark, but is arguably where it gracefully lands on the other side of it. A divisive film,F9has an awkward legacy in Statham’s sequel catalog.
By the third installment,The Expendablesfranchise knew that its appeal was already quickly waning. Its solution was to draft a new generation of Expendables with slightly sprightlier actors, still finding the time to balance the bloated cast of aged stars with a story about the titular group’s evil co-founder.
Statham has starkly less screentime in this installment, and the film suffers for it. Antonio Banderas is a fun, if overbearing addition tothe Expendables' roster, and Harrison Ford stuns in one of his most obliquely bored performances ever. The sheepish walk back to a PG-13 rating in hopes of broader appeal doesn’t do the series any favors, either.
After the franchise had floundered in its bloated scale for a bit,Fast Xaimed to remind what fans remained of what they liked from one of the series' most popular films.A revenge movie directly building on the events ofFast Five, Fast Xhas the potential to be a true turning point for the series as a whole.
However, it’s hard to judgeFast Xon its own merits now because it’s merely the beginning of a massive two-part story. Falling prey to the annoyingly popular blockbuster trend of splitting climactic finales into two movies,Fast Xenjoys the benefits of a great cast, such as Statham and the great villainous performance of another Jason, Jason Momoa, but ends on an aggravating cliffhanger.
The Mechanicis often mildly regarded as a fun, if formulaic, Statham-led action romp that doesn’t re-invent any rules, but is entertaining enough.Mechanic: Resurrectionis essentially more of the same, but doesn’t have a great argument for its own existence by way of being a sequel released in 2016.
In a world that had already seenJohn Wick, Mad Max: Fury Road,andMission Impossible - Rogue Nationcome and go, a choppily-edited generic action movie likeMechanic: Resurrectionis no longer suited for the cinematic environment it finds itself in. The film has the legacy of a time-displaced creature struggling to compete with any of its peers.
Arguably, the initialTransportertrilogy is Jason Statham’s best argument for being the dedicated lead of an action franchise. By the time of the third film, however, the series had begun searching for entertainment in some very odd places. It’s no wonderStatham passed on the fourthTransporter.
Transporter 3makes a pass at actually having characters that bond with one another and manifest elements of a personality in between the violence. It manifests them in an odd way, with whiplash romances careening through the franchise’s signature breakneck editing pace. Blink while watchingTransporter 3, and it might be hard to recover from the whiplash.
It’s rare that Jason Statham gets to star in a sequel that improves upon the original, andThe Expendables 2fulfills this description wonderfully. TheExpendablescertainly was never a high-concept series to begin with, and the low-brow entertainment of watching every action movie icon under the sun get together to duke things out peaks here.
Jean-Claude Van Damme is amazing as the film’s villain, stealing every scene with a roundhouse kick to the heart. Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis all have their talents utilized far better here than in the original,representing about as high of a ceiling as theExpendablesseries could have ever realistically aspired to.
By all means,The Fate of the Furiousisn’t a belovedFast & Furiousmovie, laden with a eye-rolling plot line about Dom’s bad side and tangled in a confusing mess of a plot. But as a Jason Statham sequel, it’s hard to deny that the bald British action hero puts forth some of his best efforts here, raising the profile of the entire film.
IfF9was where the seriesofficially jumped the shark,The Fate of the Furiousis the nailbiting run up to the ramp, with a climactic final setpiece in the arctic that nudged the franchise intoMission Impossible-style absurdity. But the genius move of pairing Jason Statham with a baby gives the film a tone of value as an installment of his career.
