The A-List recently had the opportunity to see the new Ric Roman Waugh film “Shelter,” starring Jason Statham, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Bill Nighy, Naomi Ackie, and Daniel Mays.
We also had the wonderful opportunity to interview Mr. Waugh, who was kind enough to spend some time with us and discuss his new film in depth. You can read that article here.
Shelter follows a former assassin living in self-imposed exile on a remote island, who rescues a young girl from a deadly storm. As their lives start to intertwine, he must protect the orphan while battling enemies from his past.
“Shelter” wide released in theaters on January 30. We’d like to thank Allied Global Marketing for the opportunity to cover this film (as always), and another big thanks to Ric Roman Waugh for speaking with us.
With all that out of the way, let’s get into the review!
Larisa: While Shelter provided a little over an hour and a half of action-packed entertainment, I feel as though the execution of the film’s plot and dialogue fell flat and leaned into the cookie-cutter stereotype of this genre of espionage action movies. Ric Roman Waugh’s second theatrical release of the month, although exciting, lost its footing in the world-building aspects.
In Shelter, Jason Statham portrays Michael Mason, a reclusive ex-MI6 agent who is living in self-exile on a remote island with his dog.
Bodhi Rae Breathnach, who recently starred in Oscar nominated movie Hamnet, plays Jessie, a young girl who runs supplies to Mason’s island and ends up getting stranded and pulled into his mysterious life.
To begin, the plot structure had good bones that I feel could have been elaborated on. The themes of government surveillance and going against “just following orders” feel especially relevant in today’s political climate, but the topics fell short in the overall scope.
Without spoiling any major details, I felt the themes didn’t serve any purpose beyond moving the plot forward without providing any commentary on the topics themselves. Although Mason is seen as being in the right for his actions of not blindly following orders, there’s no clear resolution to his actions.
As for the government surveillance aspect, the audience only sees the technology used as a tool. While a conversation about the necessity of such technology is opened, there’s no final answer on its justifiability in either real life or the movie.
The dynamic between Michael Mason and Jessie is, to me, the most compelling aspect of the movie, but it still felt underdeveloped.
While the found family trope is one of my favorites, it didn’t feel to me as though they truly spent enough time together to warrant the level of closeness the film portrayed, aside from trauma bonding or a Stockholm Syndrome scenario.
While the father-daughter-esque relationship did make me root for the characters, I more so felt worried for Jessie’s character throughout the film. However, Waugh did a good job directing the uncertainty in Mason’s mind over whether he should stay with Jessie or split off from her for her own protection.
The stunts and action shots did make the movie more compelling. The audience can see Waugh’s former experience as a stuntman come through in these sequences, which not only moved the plot forward but also held the audience’s interest.
To me, the standout performance in this movie was by Breathnach, who really brought her character of Jessie to life. This is Breathnach’s action debut, and I feel she did a fantastic job capturing the heart of the genre.
While Shelter may not be one of my favorite releases this year, I do feel it is a fun movie to watch with family and friends who are fans of the action genre!
Spencer: Welp, looks like Ric Roman Waugh lost the Jason Statham lottery for 2026. By that I mean that every year, some director is forced to make the same Jason Statham movie, in which he plays a stoic, no-nonsense badass with superhuman martial arts abilities and a strong moral code.
When I say this happens every year, I mean every year.
2025’s “The Working Man,” 2024’s “The Bee Keeper,” 2023’s “Expend4bles,” and “Meg 2: The Trench.”
The list just goes on and on. Haven’t we had enough of Jason Statham playing the same character in every film? According to “Shelter,” no.
“Shelter” follows Michael Mason, who used to work as a super-secret agent for the government, before he forces himself into self-exile after refusing a kill order from his superior.
This is where we first meet Michael, in an abandoned lighthouse way off the coast. He has a dog and seems to endlessly drink. A young girl and her uncle bring Michael his alcohol and food each month, but never interact with him.
When a storm suddenly hits as the young girl is bringing Michael his supplies, it results in the death of her uncle, and leads to Michael being forced to take care of her. Michael slowly learns to love again and makes it his mission to protect Jessie at any cost.
The majority of the film is a chase to get Jessie somewhere safe and far away from the dangers Michael’s life poses. Along the way, Michael and Jessie form a sort of found family situation and become each other's family.
Okay, so those are the basic plot lines of the film. Actually, that’s the entire film.
Most of the movie consists of big chase scenes, gunfights and short conversations leading to big chase scenes and gunfights. I feel the movie really lacks genuine substance. It says very little about the impact of self-isolation, of found family, of protecting those you cherish most.
Though the audience is supposed to feel like Michael cares deeply for Jessie, it feels more like he’s just going through the motions. The story doesn’t give much time for the relationship to develop, and they bond mostly over the danger of the situation, which doesn’t lend itself to much analysis.
The best parts of the film are the action scenes, but even those can fall flat and drag on entirely too long. There are so many scenes of Michael being chased, shooting at government agents or engaged in hand-to-hand combat, with Michael, of course, ending up as the winner.
These scenes can drag for 15-20 minutes at a time, and though the action can be visually very interesting at times, at some point, it just becomes a chore to get through. There are only so many times you can watch Jason Statham beat up a group of men before it becomes tiresome.
This is my biggest issue with the film. I don’t think it said anything unique or significant about isolation, government overreach, or found family. The film barely scrapes the surface of those themes, instead leaving a majority of the runtime to the never-ending action scenes.
Since the audience feels no connection to the characters and cares little about their motivations, there’s nothing to latch onto. Nothing makes the audience care about what happens to Michael and Jessie because these are characters that have no substance.
You know Michael will wind up fine because that’s the way the film has to go, and you know Jessie will survive and create a life with Michael as her father, because that's just the way the film must go.
The themes of government overreach hang over the entire film, yet there is never a definitive point made about it. There’s just government overreach, and Michael has to find his way through it to survive. It says nothing unique about the topic and doesn’t challenge the audience to look at it from a different perspective.
There’s just nothing in the film to keep the audience engaged, and no definitive standpoint to take away by the end. It’s the type of movie you go see with grandma and grandpa because you know everyone will be able to watch the film and moderately enjoy it.
But those are the kinds of films I dislike most, those that say nothing, show nothing, and leave you feeling empty by the end. The most unfortunate thing is that general audiences eat it up.
Statham’s movies have grossed more than twice their budgets in recent years, making it basically a guarantee that similar mid-budget action films starring Statham will continue to be greenlit and produced. I’m hoping that the next Statham film actually says something of note and challenges the audience beyond the most surface-level critiques.
I think Ric Roman Waugh is a talented director, but basic, boring action-drama films like “Shelter” contribute little to our cultural zeitgeist and detract from smaller-budget films that genuinely have something important to say.
If you need a non-controversial co-worker movie to watch with the family, “Shelter” might just be your movie, but it simply was not my cup of tea.
