There aren’t many actors working today as synonymous with the action genre as Jason Statham, who has been making great films within the genre for almost three decades. While stars like Liam Neeson and Tom Cruise have found a way to work in some non-action roles into their respective filmographies, Statham is unlikely to be in a film where he isn’t dispatching bad guys in a particularly ruthless fashion.
Statham has been in more than a few great action films, but some of his projects tend to be more intense than others. While it’s nice to see him try something more comedic like Spy or The Meg, Statham is often at his best when he is taking the material seriously, as they tend to benefit from the gravity that he can bring. Here are the ten most thrilling Jason Statham movies, ranked.
10 ‘The Expendables’ (2010)
Directed by Sylvester Stallone
The Expendables was the ultimate dream for action movie fans, as the film combines multiple generations of stars for an epic team up adventure. Statham teamed up with Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Steve Austin, Eric Roberts, Jet Li, Charisma Carpenter, Terry Crews, and Dolph Lundgren among others for this story about a group of past-their-prime veterans assigned to go through with one last mission.
Although the franchise would eventually get sillier as it went along, the first The Expendables film is quite intense and surprisingly quite violent, as the jokes are far more subdued than they were in the sequels. Statham is responsible for giving the film some of its dramatic heft, as the fight scenes that he is involved with generally tend to be the most entertaining out of any of the film’s other co-stars.
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9 ‘Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre’ (2023)
Directed by Guy Ritchie
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is one of the more underrated films that Statham starred in, and served as a welcome reunion with director Guy Ritchie, who had helmed him in some of his earliest roles. The film stars Statham, Aubrey Plaza, and Bugzy Malone as a group of highly trained secret agents who must win the assistance of a movie star (Josh Hartnett) to help influence a powerful billionaire (Hugh Grant).
Although there are certainly a lot of the eye-popping action scenes that one would come to expect from a new Ritchie film, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre works as an old-fashioned caper adventure, complete with elaborate heists and double crosses. It’s actually rather unfortunate that the film did not perform well enough to receive a sequel, as the ending seemed to suggest another adventure was in play.
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8 ‘Wrath of Man’ (2021)
Directed by Guy Ritchie
Wrath of Man is a heist thriller that turns the caper genre on its head, as Statham stars as a security guard who is purposefully trying to lure out criminals in order to track them down and kill them brutally. Although initially this is just seen as an excuse to have some great shootout sequences, it’s eventually revealed that Statham’s character is on a critical mission of revenge in order to avenge the death of his son.
The emotional stakes regarding a father recovering from loss make Wrath of Man surprisingly engaging on a character level, and make the violent action scenes worth investing in. While he is best known as a quippy action star best known for physicality and serious demeanor playing anti-heroes, Statham is often a far more accomplished actor than he is ever given credit for being.
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7 ‘The Beekeeper’ (2024)
Directed by David Ayer
The Beekeeper is exploitative action nonsense at its best, as director David Ayer was seemingly inspired by classic Cannon films to make this brutal, uncompromising revenge thriller. While it can be compared to other films based on its premise alone, The Beekeeper is willing to go to particularly violent and satirical places that action cinema has avoided in recent memory.
The Beekeeper is worth watching because Statham is on a great revenge mission, as he is attempting to take down a corrupt organization responsible for deceiving elderly people and depriving them of their money. Although there are flashes of humor sprinkled throughout, The Beekeeper is uncompromisingly violent in a way that may even shock those familiar with Ayer’s recent projects. Seeing Statham take down a corrupt conspiracy related to the President of the United States is one of the wildest swings in recent action films.
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6 ‘Crank’ (2006)
Directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor
Crank has one of the greatest premises for any action film, as Statham plays a character who must keep his heart rate at a very high level in order to prevent a bomb from detonating. Inspired by the classic neo-noir mystery film D.O.A., Crank is both an exhilarating burst of energy and a surprisingly existentialist thriller on the value of saving one’s life.
Crank is the type of film that gives the viewer no room to catch their breath, as directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor do a great job at upping the ante when it comes to ridiculousness with each subsequent action sequence. The maniacal, dark sense of comic relief that Statham adds to the role somehow makes the experience of watching Crank even more intense; sometimes, the only way to react to a nihilist situation is to laugh at it.
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5 ‘Crank 2: High Voltage’ (2009)
Directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor
Crank 2: High Voltage is the rare action sequel that is even more intense than its predecessor, as the sequel takes the concept of the first film and pushes it to its extreme. While the first Crank certainly had some moments that strained credibility (considering that the entire premise is completely ridiculous), Crank 2: High Voltage gets bizarre to the point that it flirts with surrealism.
Statham was perhaps the only action star capable of pulling off this sort of film, as he has both the physicality needed to make it feel somewhat practical, and the cheeky sense of humor needed to remind the viewers to not take anything too seriously. If Neveldine and Taylor even wanted to make a third film in the Crank franchise, they would have to work very hard to come up with something wilder than what happens in Crank 2: High Voltage.
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4 ‘Furious 7’ (2015)
Directed by James Wan
Furious 7 is arguably one of the best films in The Fast and the Furious franchise, and actually managed to elicit some genuine tears from audiences based on the emotional way that it wraps up. Statham joined the franchise as Shaw, a supervillain out for revenge against Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker) and Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) after his brother (Luke Evans) was threatened in the previous film, Fast & Furious 6.
Furious 7 is one of the rare instances in which Statham got to play the antagonist, and certainly proved to be one of the best villains in the entire The Fast and the Furious saga. None of the films in the series are particularly gritty, but Statham was at least able to add some genuine emotional stakes to the story that have felt completely absent in some of the more recent sequels.
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3 ‘The Italian Job’ (2003)
Directed by F. Gary Gray
The Italian Job is one of the rare action movie remakes that is actually better than its predecessor, as the 2003 film from director F. Gary Gray is more emotionally involved and well staged than the 1969 classic starring Michael Caine. Statham, Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, and Seth Green star as a team of bank robbers who try to take down a former member of their team (Edward Norton), who betrayed them and killed their leader (Donald Sutherland).
The Italian Job features amazing car chase scenes, but is at its best when it comes up with interesting heist scenarios for the characters to pull off. Although the film does have some serious dramatic stakes (especially in comparison to the more straightforward and silly 1969 film), the comedic interplay between Statham and Green does add some moments of much needed levity.
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2 ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ (1998)
Directed by Guy Ritchie
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was an extraordinary debut from Ritchie that actually originated as a series of scattershot ideas that he had written down on a napkin. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels does a great job at setting up a multitude of compelling gangster characters, but Statham’s performance as the no-nonsense mobster Bacon is most certainly one of the standouts.
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels succeeds because of its inventive narrative structure, as it uses strange flashbacks, odd skips in time, and non-traditional needle drops to create a disorienting experience. Statham proved in one of his earliest roles that he was a perfect fit for Richie’s sensibilities, and to no one’s surprise, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels became an instant cult classic that kicked off one of the most entertaining actor-director partnerships in modern cinematic history.
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1 ‘Snatch’ (2001)
Directed by Guy Ritchie
Snatch is in many ways the ultimate Ritchie movie, as it is a comedy of errors that focuses on various criminals, gangsters, and thieves within the London criminal underworld. Although it has one of the grandest, most impressive ensemble casts of Ritchie’s films thus far (including a standout performance by Brad Pitt as an Irish boxer), Statham’s role as yet another tough-minded gangster is by far the film’s biggest scene stealer.
Snatch moves at such an alarmingly quick pace that there is little room to breathe, giving Statham the opportunity to maximize every moment when he’s in danger. Although it’s a film that risks becoming confusing because of the unusual way in which Ritchie chose to write and edit it, Statham brings so much personality to his performance that it becomes much easier to get invested within the story.
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