Jason Statham

The indestructible hopped-up hitman Chev Chelios, played to the hilt once again by Jason Statham, returns in Crank 2: High Voltage, picking up where the first film left off -- except this time, Chelios is chasing a Chinese gangster who hijacked his heart and substituted it with a mechanical one that needs to be jolted with an electric charge to stay pumping. The maverick directing/writing team of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor returns to inject more caffeinated craziness into Lionsgate's burgeoning action series, with Amy Smart and Dwight Yoakam set to reprise their roles from the original. Efren Ramirez, Bai Ling, Clifton Collins Jr., and Corey Haim round out the cast. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Strong-armed into transporting the kidnapped daughter of the head of the Environmental Agency for the Ukraine from Marseilles to Odessa, skilled wheelman Frank Martin (Jason Statham) enlists the aid of Inspector Tarconi (François Berléand) in accomplishing the treacherous assignment in this action-packed installment of the popular action series produced by Luc Besson (who also co-scripts). Frank isn't exactly thrilled with his latest assignment, but when his employer turns up the pressure, he has little choice but to deliver. His cargo is a feisty young girl named Valentina (Natalya Rudakova) -- who just happens to be the daughter of Leonid Vasilev (Jeroen Krabbé), the powerful top dog of the Ukraine EPA. Now, as Frank makes his way through Stuttgart and Budapest on the road to the Black Sea, Vasilev's men besiege his car from all sides, and his cynical young passenger gets a bad case of Stockholm Syndrome. As the driver and his cargo grow increasingly close, they both realize that making even a single mistake could cost them dearly. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Uwe Boll's fantasy adventure film In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale stars Jason Statham as Farmer, a simple man from the Kingdom of Ehb whose goal as the story begins is to care for his family. However, when the power-hungry Gallian (Ray Liotta) invades the kingdom, Farmer must abandon his simple existence in order to rescue his wife (Claire Forlani) and save his king (Burt Reynolds). This film is a cinematic adaptation of the video game Dungeon Siege. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

A one-time freelance hitman who was just attempting to turn his life around is forced to keep his heart pumping when his vengeful former employers inject him with a lethal poison that will permanently stop his ticker if his pulse sinks beneath an active rate in a non-stop urban action extravaganza starring Jason Statham and Amy Smart. Chev Chelios (Statham) was one of the most skilled assassins in the West Coast crime syndicate. When he hung up his guns in the middle of a job to run off with his new girlfriend Eve (Smart), however, the man who was once the hunter now becomes the hunted. Awakened from his slumber by a telephone call informing him of his precarious situation, Chelios soon discovers that the only way to save Eve from certain death at the hands of his nemesis is to stay two steps ahead of his killers, keep his heart-rate high enough to stay alive, and blast through the streets of Los Angeles in search of an antidote. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Driver and muscle for hire Frank Martin returns in this sequel to the 2002 box-office hit. Frank Martin (Jason Statham) is a former special-forces officer who will transport anything anywhere for a price, and his latest assignment is acting as chauffeur for Jack Billings (Hunter Clary), the young son of politician Jefferson Billings (Matthew Modine), who has garnered no small amount of controversy for his aggressive efforts to stamp out the trade in illegal drugs. One day, Frank is to take Jack to the doctor for a checkup while his mother, Audrey (Amber Valletta), sets up a birthday party for the tyke. However, Jack's doctor is not who he appears to be -- he's actually Dimitri (Jason Flemyng), a Russian agent well versed in viruses who works with criminal kingpin Gianni (Alessandro Gassman). After a long and hard-fought chase with Frank, the bad guys get ahold of little Jack and hold him for ransom. The parents comply with their monetary demands and soon have their son back at home -- but little do they know that the boy has secretly been injected with a deadly and easily spread virus, which the terrorists hope to spread to the boy's powerful father and other politicians whom Jefferson will soon be addressing at a public event. When Frank learns what has happened to young Jack, he sets out to find the culprits -- and the antidote that will save the boy and all others who have been exposed to the virus from dying a painful death -- though his foes have stacked the deck so that it looks as if Frank has been complicit in the crime. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A party becomes a metaphor for the wasted lives of a handful of young hipsters in this edgy independent drama. Syd (Chris Evans) awakes from the latest in a long series of drug- and booze-fueled benders when he receiving a phone call from a friend informing him that London (Jessica Biel), who recently broke up with Syd, will be moving away from New York for California with her new boyfriend in a few days, and that a going-away party is being thrown for her that evening. Syd hasn't been invited to the bash, but he decides to attend anyway, and brings along Bateman (Jason Statham), a bartender who moonlights as a cocaine dealer. Bateman is carrying a large supply of nose candy, and after arriving at the party he and Syd install themselves in the bathroom, where they snort line after line while guzzling tequila and discussing philosophical matters regarding love, sex, and emotional pain. The private party-within-a-party is soon joined by Maya (Kelli Garner) and Mallory (Joy Bryant), who share cocaine and sympathy with the guys until Syd learns that London has arrived, and he decides it's time to confront her. London was the first feature film for writer and director Hunter Richards. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A team of high-class thieves avenge their mentor's death -- with the help of his own daughter -- in this big-budget remake of the 1969 British caper classic. The Italian Job stars Mark Wahlberg as Charlie, the mastermind of a daring Venice heist overseen by John (Donald Sutherland), a lifelong criminal who plans to retire from the fold with the earnings from his most recent take. Basking in the glow of a job well done at a secluded retreat in the Alps, the thieves -- including the aptly-named Handsome Rob (Jason Statham), tech-geek Lyle (Seth Green), and hearing-impaired quipster Left Ear (Mos Def) -- are ruthlessly double-crossed by one of their own, the taciturn, calculating Steve Frezelli (Edward Norton). Time passes and each member of the group finds himself pursuing other opportunities in the States, until Charlie rallies them together for a revenge-motivated scheme designed to bilk Steve of all his misbegotten earnings. In order to cinch the deal, he even enlists John's reluctant safecracking-prodigy daughter, Stella (Charlize Theron), for an elaborate, incognito Los Angeles heist. But the paranoid Steve proves himself to be one step ahead of them at just about every turn, and Charlie finds that he'll have to make some daring last-minute changes to their plan if the team is to succeed. The Italian Job marked director F. Gary Gray's second 2003 release after the Vin Diesel vehicle A Man Apart. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

The classic Burt Reynolds football-behind-bars flick The Longest Yard crosses the pond and gets an appropriate British accent in the process in this rough-and-tumble mixture of sports and action-comedy. Danny Mehan (Vinnie Jones) was one of the biggest stars in British football (what Americans call soccer), until he was caught rigging a game during a championship tournament. In the wake of this scandal, Danny's career takes a nosedive and his life spins out of control, until he finally ends up in prison for three years on an assault and battery conviction. Danny discovers there are a number of football fans behind bars who still hate him for fixing the game, but Danny has one powerful fan in this prison. The warden (David Hemmings) is a devoted football supporter with a taste for gambling; he's been trying to assemble a semi-pro team comprised of the prison's guards, but Danny is just smart enough to know this would seal his fate with his fellow prisoners. Instead, he offers to put together a team of inmates, who can play practice games against the guards. A new inmate, Sykes (John Forgeham), gets wind of Danny's idea and arranges an exhibition match between Danny's new team and the guards, though Sykes' motivation is more than just good fun. A powerful bookie, Sykes lost a fortune on the game Danny threw, and expects betting to be heavy for this game. If Danny and his men win, Sykes could make back the fortune he lost, but if the guards come out ahead, Danny's goose is cooked. Can Danny turn a gang of losers, misfits, and violent psychopaths -- including muscle-bound lunatic Monk (Jason Statham), creepy but loyal Billy the Limpit (Danny Dyer), tough guy Massive (Vas Blackwood), pyromaniac Nitro (Robbie Gee), and enthusiastic but out-of-shape Raj (Omid Djalili) -- into a proper team with a fighting chance of winning? Mean Machine was produced by Matthew Vaughn, who was also behind Guy Ritchie's tough-but-stylish crime comedies Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Star Vinnie Jones, by the way, enjoyed a career as a professional footballer in Great Britain before turning to acting. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Guy Ritchie's sophomore follow-up to his 1998 sleeper hit Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch revisits the previous film's territory of London's crime-ridden underbelly, and does so with the same brand of humor and stylish direction that made Ritchie's first effort a surprise success. With a labyrinthine plot that is ostensibly oriented around a missing diamond, Snatch introduces viewers to three groups of characters intent on retrieving the elusive stone, which has been stolen from an Antwerp jeweler. In the first group are friends and business partners Turkish (Jason Statham, who also supplies the film's voice-over narration) and Tommy (Stephen Graham), who join up with Mickey (Brad Pitt), an Irish gypsy and boxer. Turkish and Tommy make arrangements with Mickey to take a fall in a match engineered by lunatic gang leader Brick Top (Alan Ford). In another corner resides equally loony Russian gangster Boris the Blade (Rade Sherbedgia), who has asked Jewish gangster Franky Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro) to place a bet on the match for him. Boris is also scheming to have Sol (Lennie James), the owner of a pawn shop, rob the place with a couple of dim associates. Meanwhile, Avi (Dennis Farina), freshly arrived in London from New York, hires Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones) to find Franky when he goes missing; it seems that it was none other than Franky who was supposed to be transporting the purloined diamond to New York. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

British writer Guy Ritchie made his feature directorial debut with this crime-caper comedy-drama set in London's East End and heavy on the Cockney dialogue (with one scene in subtitled Cockney rhyming slang). A big-bucks scheme goes awry: Cardsharp Eddy (Nick Moran) and pals Bacon (Jason Statham), Tom (Jason Flemyng), and Soap (Dexter Fletcher) scuffle to pile up enough money to put Eddy at the card table opposite gangland porn lord Hatchet Harry (P.H. Moriarty). Unfortunately, the whole plan backfires, leaving Eddy owing Harry a huge sum, payable within the week. In truth, Harry hopes to acquire the bar run by his rival, J.D. (Sting), who is Eddy's father. To raise the cash, Eddy sets out to steal from a marijuana business run by Winston (Steven Mackintosh), but the inevitable gunplay doesn't make for an easy heist. World premiere at the 1998 Edinburgh Film Festival (Focus on British Cinema). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide