The quiet charm of Jason Statham

BEVERLY HILLS — Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.

According to the latest issue of Men’s Health (with former California Arnold Schwarzenegger on the cover proclaiming, “I’m back!” — yes, in Expendables 2) which ranks Jason Statham as one of The 25 Greatest Action Movie Stars of All Time, that was Jason’s best quote he delivered in the 2011 The Mechanic, a remake of the Charles Bronson starrer in which he played the hitman Arthur Bishop.

Best known for his role as Frank Martin in the Transporter 1, 2 and 3 films (where, noted Men’s Health, “he violently demonstrates about three dozen new uses for a fire hose”), the English actor who placed 12th in the world as one of the top divers on the British team certainly made a judgment when he said yes to co-starring with such formidable action icons as Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and, yes, Schwarzenegger in Expendables 2 which takes up where the first one left off, leaving in its wake more than 300 dead bodies (even more, count ‘em!) in breathtaking two hours that take the expendables to wipe out the bad men threatening “to change the balance of power in the world” with five tons of weapons-grade plutonium.

Asked to sum up the experience of working with what’s described as “a veritable Mount Rushmore of action legends” during a one-on-one at a function room of Four Seasons (where Hollywood stars feel at home because they are treated like any ordinary mortals), Statham answered with only three words, rather names, “Stallone, Bruce and Arnold,” adding, “There it was. They were there along with the rest of this massive line-up and it was a great feeling to see my name with theirs. It’s an amazing privilege.”

Directed by Simon West, Expendables 2 ushers back the good old traditional action thriller with not much of the CGI used extensively in today’s action films.

“The film was inspired by the simple but undeniable power of the original action formula,” West was quoted in the production notes as saying. “The characters are real people with lethal expertise pushed into situations where they have to use it. Rather than magic, they have to rely on sheer guts, skill and a refusal to quit.”

Kevin King-Templeton, the producer, agreed. “It goes back to a day when everything was done right in front of the camera. There are real car crashes, real fight scenes and real mayhem. No phony muscle suits or body enhancements needed. This is the real deal. I think the audience appreciates that it’s all done without CGI tricks.”

Like the rest of the cast with their roles, Statham reprises his in the original Expendables, as Lee Christmas, the knife-wielding killing machine who wears his heart on his sleeve and struggles in his personal relationships.

“He’s kind of a workingman’s hero,” said Statham, “a guy you’d want to go out and have a beer with.”

It’s said that in the movie, Statham and Stallone (who begged off from the junket because he was grieving for his son Sage who was buried a week earlier) had a chance to further hone their irreverent back-and-forth repartee as relentlessly competitive buddies.

“The relationship between Christmas and Barney Ross, my character, was so good in the first movie that we’ve enhanced it with more humor and action,” Stallone was quoted as saying. (The film mixes hard-hitting action with self-deprecating humor, with the stars obviously having fun making fun of themselves. Watch the movie and find out what I mean.) “They’re a great team together, like the Odd Couple, really. They’re constantly fighting but have a great affection for each other.”

Said director King-Templeton, “Jason and Sly are very good friends themselves so when they’re in character as Christmas and Barney, their banter really comes alive.”

Shot in 14 weeks in Bulgaria, New Orleans and Hong Kong (where Jean-Claude Van Damme, as the movie’s main villain, lives like Jet Li and Yu Nan, the Chinese actors in the cast), Expendables 2 is expected to equal if not surpass the record of Expendables 1 which raked in more than $274 million worldwide in 2010.

That should up the market value of Statham whose lifetime box-office gross was placed at $635,919,390 by Men’s Health. (A vulture.com survey, published in the recent issue of New York magazine, ranks Statham No. 33 among The 100 Hollywood’s Most Valuable Stars and, E-Poll, also published in the same magazine, named Statham No. 3 among The 10 Most Likable along with [as ranked] Sandra Bullock, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, Liam Neeson, Robert DeNiro, Will Smith, Tom Hanks, Reese Witherspoon and Mila Kunis.)

There’s an unconfirmed report that Manny Pacquiao was eyed to be included in the Expendables 2 cast. Van Damme and co-star Dolph Lundgren said that that would have added more fun to the movie. “We would have loved to have Pacquiao with us,” they said.

Smiled Statham, “Why not?”

Asked about the possibility of shooting (parts of) Expendables 3 (a probability) in the Philippines, Statham exclaimed, “Wonderful! I heard that it’s one of the most exotic places in Asia. For the last 10 years, I’ve been trying to find a suitable story that we can shoot there.”

(Produced by Lionsgate and Millennium Films and released locally by Viva Films, Expendables 2 will have a premiere tonight at Greenbelt 3, SM Megamall Cinema 2 & 6, Glorietta 4, Robinsons Galleria Cinema 6 and Rockwell Cinema 3 & 4; and will open nationwide tomorrow, Aug. 16.)

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