Shelter

NOW IN THEATERS! In Ric Roman Waugh’s action-thriller, Shelter, Jason Statham plays a former special ops soldier who runs a lighthouse. This is not to be confused with Statham playing a former special ops soldier who is now a construction worker in A Working Man, or with him playing a former special ops soldier who is now a beekeeper in The Beekeeper. I hear he will play yet another former special ops soldier who works by day as a Vietnamese nail stylist in The Salon.

Anyway, Statham is Michael Mason, a former special-ops soldier who lives alone in a weather-beaten lighthouse on the Scottish Isles. As a recluse, he never leaves the lighthouse and has a friend deliver groceries and supplies every week, usually with his niece, Jessie (Bodhi Rae Breathnach). One day, while on a grocery run, a storm hits out of nowhere and capsizes the boat. Mason saves Jessie but not her uncle. Feeling responsible, Mason becomes her guardian, but knows he has to pass her off to someone else as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, in the real world, there is trouble brewing over at MI6. Bureau head Steven Manafort (Bill Nighy) has been caught collecting data for covert surveillance of everyone, a direct violation of England’s Privacy Act. When MI6 head Roberta Frost (Naomi Ackie) learns the truth, Manafort becomes the scapegoat and is dismissed from his position… so everyone thinks. He’s still very much in charge… just no one knows it.

Michael Mason (Jason Statham) races through a fiery ambush in Shelter (2026).

“…a former special-ops soldier who lives alone in a weather-beaten lighthouse on the Scottish Isles.”

Now that his delivery service is gone, Mason must go into the city to get groceries himself. As much as he tries to hide his identity, a rogue camera from a social media influencer catches a split-second glimpse of Mason. Because of Manafort’s extensive surveillance network, Mason (presumed dead) is identified, and a strike force is sent to the lighthouse to take down Mason… well, we know how this ends.

Is it me, or are all of Jason Statham’s movies starting to blend together? I was joking in my introduction, but then again, I wasn’t. Let’s be real: the only reason to see a Jason Statham movie is for all that juicy action. Fist fights, knife fights, gunplay, machine-gun mayhem, explosions… all in this game of cat-and-mouse.

It’s not that I didn’t like Shelter, but how is this any different from his other films? Here, he kills a lot of bad guys, but what’s different is that he’s trying to keep a young teen girl safe from bullets and executions. Yes, they develop a father-daughter relationship. She shows him what it means to be a normal, loving person. But it’s still nothing new.

Ultimately, Shelter will just go on your physical media shelf as another action film to watch in the background. Sure, you might stop once in a while to catch up on the action, but there’s nothing groundbreaking in this tale.