REVIEW: "Shelter" ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Jason Statham's latest is a lean, gritty and surprising gripping survival thriller powered more by strong acting and emotion than by its well-staged action set pieces.
(Originally posted on January 28, 2026)
Happy Wednesday, friends!
Before I get into “Shelter,” I just want to point out that we’re basically through January 2026, and I have yet to see a “bad” movie.
That’s weird when you think that January used to be the “dumping ground” for movie studios looking to release films they know will be more valuable as tax write-offs than anything else. Over the years, I’ve just come to expect that this time of year will bring very forgettable films.
Not so in 2026. “Primate” was surprisingly gory fun. “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” delivered the goods, regardless of whether or not audiences showed up to enjoy them. And now, here comes Jason Statham with “Shelter,” and it’s a pretty damn good movie in its own right. Let’s dive in — as always, postscripts after the video.
Postscripts:
Ric Roman Waugh, the director of “Shelter,” may not be the most familiar name when it comes to helming action films, but he certainly knows the genre. Before he was a director, he was an actor and a stuntman, with credits ranging from “Universal Soldier” to “The Crow” to “Gone in 60 Seconds.” His filmography as a director includes “Snitch,” starring Dwayne Johnson and, much more recently, “Greenland” and “Greenland 2: Migration,” starring Gerard Butler.
Costume oddities: At what point in modern cinema did thick, ugly spectacles become associated with British bureaucratic spooks? Bill Nighy’s character here is just the latest nefarious spymaster to be brought to life on screen seemingly with failing eyesight. It could just be that “Shelter” borrows a great deal of its depiction of MI6 from John le Carre novels — one character even refers to working for the agency as being in “the Circus,” the colloquial term often used to refer to British Intelligence in le Carre stories. But we’ve seen this costume trope everywhere, from “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” to the “Mission: Impossible” films. Are all these shadowy types not great candidates for contacts or surgery?
Minimalist script: I didn’t time it, but I’d wager the film runs at least 10 minutes before any character utters a sentence longer than 5 words. It’s not a knock — the film conveys a lot about its characters in those early minutes, and it does so with remarkable verbal economy.
Connections: There’s a moment in the first act of “Shelter” that might remind viewers of a particularly memorable and vicious moment in the original “John Wick.” While that film and this one couldn’t be more different in terms of style and execution, they do have this in common. Once you see it, you’ll know what I mean.