2 minutes of readingJanuary 30, 2026 04:48 pm IST
Shelter movie review: Jason Statham, a dog, a desert rock instead of an island, a lighthouse and a boat. He goes nowhere and no one comes to him except a man and his niece with supplies. Then, one day, he needs to venture out to save his niece, a young woman who has not yet reached adolescence. He drags his boat out to sea and pulls the rope. One pull and the engine starts.
Statham is that kind of guy: the one-hit-man you can trust to be ready anytime, anywhere to save the world.
Once again, there is some kind of “superintelligence” surveillance network that has caused a scandal; and a shadowy spy chief (this time MI6 chief Manafort, played by Nighy) who is into some very dark secrets; and an agent/assassin or, as Manafort prefers to say, a “precision instrument” who has developed a conscience (Mason, i.e. Statham).
Once again, playing the savior of an innocent party (the niece or Jessie, played by an impressive Breathnach) has forced the golden-hearted agent to come out of hiding and put himself in danger.
And once again, there’s a nice spy (in this case new MI6 boss Roberta, played by Ackie) who wants to clean up the trash left by her predecessor.
Enough car chases, hand-to-hand combat, shootouts, beatings, and furious typing at computers happen. Nothing is particularly bad; but nothing attracts attention either.
Then read – Send help movie review: Rachel McAdams elevates Sam Raimi’s twisty survival thriller
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Over the course of all the effort and saving, Jessie, an orphan with no one else in the world, and Mason become attached. When she worries that he can no longer return to the lighthouse he had made his home, he tells her, “There’s always another island.”
You bet. And always another Statham movie, around that island.
Refuge film director: Ric Roman Waugh
Cast of the film Refuge: Jason Statham, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Naomie Ackie, Bill Nighy
Shelter movie rating: 2 stars