Jason Statham is one of the most interesting movie stars on the planet. He’s a martial arts master, but the place I first noticed him was in British gangster movies, talking fast and delivering insanely memorable lines.
Now, at this point in his career, you know exactly what you’re getting when you buy a ticket: a bald British man who hits people with alarming efficiency and somehow, every single time, it works.
The guy makes movies that are so fun and so watchable. But which are his best all-time? Which gives us every facet of what he can do on screen?
Let’s dive in.
10. The Beekeeper (2024)
Director: David Ayer
Writer: Kurt Wimmer
Cinematographer: Gabriel Beristain
Cast:
- Jason Statham as Adam Clay
- Emmy Raver-Lampman as Agent Verona Parker
- Josh Hutcherson as Derek Danforth
- Bobby Naderi as Agent Wallace
- Minnie Driver as Director Janet Harward
- Phylicia Rashad as Eloise Parker
- Jeremy Irons as Wallace Westwyld
I saw this opening night, and the theater was electric. Everyone knew what they wanted from this movie, and it delivered on so many levels. Statham plays a quiet man named Adam Clay who keeps bees on a farm. He is also a retired member of an elite special forces squad called The Beekeepers. Hell yes. His kindly landlord gets wiped out by a phone scam and kills herself. Adam proceeds to murder his way up a corporate pyramid of scammers, money launderers, and ex-intelligence operatives with the calm to find the ones responsible.
David Ayer shoots it lean and mean, and Wimmer’s script knows exactly how fun it is in the best possible way. The beekeeper metaphors are not subtle.
They don’t need to…be.
9. Safe (2012)
Director: Boaz Yakin
Writer: Boaz Yakin
Cinematographer: Stefan Czapsky
Cast:
- Jason Statham as Luke Wright
- Catherine Chan as Mei
- Chris Sarandon as Mayor Tremello
- Robert John Burke as Captain Wolf
- James Hong as Han Jiao
I watched this movie on a plane. I just needed something to turn off my brain, and I was pleased at how fun this got. The Russian mob, the Chinese Triads, and a deeply corrupt NYPD are all after a Chinese genius who has memorized a secret code. Enter Luke Wright, a broken-down ex-cop and cage fighter who has lost everything and has nothing left to protect…until he meets Mei. Boaz Yakin, who made Remember the Titans, does not get enough credit for how well he handles this material. It’s a lean, propulsive thriller, and Statham gives one of his most emotionally grounded performances.
8. The Bank Job (2008)
Director: Roger Donaldson
Writer: Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais
Cinematographer: Michael Coulter
Cast:
- Jason Statham as Terry Leather
- Saffron Burrows as Martine Love
- Stephen Campbell Moore as Kevin Swain
- Daniel Mays as Dave Shilling
- James Faulkner as Guy Singer
Statham in a film based on the actual 1971 Baker Street bank robbery in London? This one is less punchy and more strategic as we see him mastermind what becomes one of the most bizarre real-world heists in British criminal history. Statham plays Terry Leather, a small-time car dealer who gets recruited into a job he doesn’t fully understand, with consequences that spiral into blackmail, corruption, and Westminster-level scandal. Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (The Commitments, Porridge) wrote a genuinely smart script, and it’s fun to hold on through the twists and turns.
8. Wrath of Man (2021)
Director: Guy Ritchie
Writer: Guy Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson, and Marn Davies
Cinematographer: Alan Stewart
Cast:
- Jason Statham as H
- Holt McCallany as Bullet
- Jeffrey Donovan as Jackson
- Josh Hartnett as Jan
- Scott Eastwood as Brad
- Eddie Marsan as Terry
- DeObia Oparei as Moggy
This is the darkest, most stripped-down version of the Statham/Ritchie collaboration, and it’s one of Guy Ritchie’s best films, too. It’s nasty and gritty and has kind of an over-the-top musical score that is fun in moments. Statham plays a mysterious new security guard at an armored truck company whose purpose nobody quite understands. Ritchie shoots it in chapters, jumping timelines, slowly revealing why this man is here and what he’s capable of doing with the right motivation. Alan Stewart’s cinematography is cold and oppressive. There’s very little wit, but it’s a genuine thriller.
7. Crank (2006)
Director: Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor
Writer: Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor
Cinematographer: Adam Biddle
Cast:
- Jason Statham as Chev Chelios
- Amy Smart as Eve
- Jose Pablo Cantillo as Verona
- Efren Ramirez as Kaylo
- Dwight Yoakam as Doc Miles
When it comes to naming your character, I’m not sure you can do better than Chev Chelios. In this movie, he wakes up and finds out he’s been injected with a synthetic poison that will kill him if his heart rate drops. So he has to keep his adrenaline spiking for the next 90 minutes while tracking down the man who poisoned him. This movie is all adrenaline. It is told in real time and never feels like it’s going to stop.
5. The Transporter (2002)
Director: Louis Leterrier and Corey Yuen
Writer: Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen
Cinematographer: Pierre Morel
Cast:
- Jason Statham as Frank Martin
- Shu Qi as Lai
- François Berléand as Inspector Tarconi
- Matt Schulze as Wall Street
An absolute action classic. There are so many memorable fights in this movie. This is the movie that made Jason Statham into an action star. And he really deserved it. Frank Martin is a mercenary driver living in the South of France who transports packages, no questions asked. Then he opens a package and meets a girl, and his whole world starts to cave in. Pierre Morel, who would later direct Taken, shot the whole thing with a kinetic energy that still holds up.
4. Furious 7 (2015)
Director: James Wan
Writer: Chris Morgan
Cinematographer: Stephen F. Windon
Cast:
- Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto
- Paul Walker as Brian O’Conner
- Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw
- Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs
- Michelle Rodriguez as Letty
- Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce
- Ludacris as Tej Parker
- Kurt Russell as Mr. Nobody
Statham showed up as the villain in this one and nearly stole a franchise that was already running on pure chaos and family speeches. Deckard Shaw is the cold-blooded British assassin out for revenge and ready to take it to anyone. Furious 7 is also the film that ends with a tribute to Paul Walker, so genuinely moving that it got people crying in multiplex seats, which is a remarkable thing for a movie where cars fall out of planes.
3. Spy (2015)
Director: Paul Feig
Writer: Paul Feig
Cinematographer: Robert Yeoman
Cast:
- Melissa McCarthy as Susan Cooper
- Jason Statham as Rick Ford
- Rose Byrne as Rayna Boyanov
- Jude Law as Bradley Fine
- Miranda Hart as Nancy B. Artingstall
- Allison Janney as Elaine Crocker
- Bobby Cannavale as Sergio De Luca
This is technically a Melissa McCarthy movie, and it’s one of her best. But Statham is so funny that he steals scenes from actual comedians. He plays Rick Ford, a preening, incompetent spy who narrates his own impossible survival stories with complete confidence, and it is one of the funniest action-comedy supporting performances of the decade. Paul Feig and Robert Yeoman (The Royal Tenenbaums) shoot the whole thing like a classic Bond film.
2. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Director: Guy Ritchie
Writer: Guy Ritchie
Cinematographer: Tim Maurice-Jones
Cast:
- Jason Statham as Bacon
- Jason Flemyng as Tom
- Dexter Fletcher as Soap
- Nick Moran as Eddy
- Vinnie Jones as Big Chris
- Sting as JD
- P.H. Moriarty as Hatchet Harry
- Lenny McLean as Barry the Baptist
The first time I watched this movie, I illegally downloaded it on Limewire. That was then, now, I watch my DVD, and I think I’ve worn it out. Guy Ritchie’s debut is the movie that introduced the world to Jason Statham, and it still crackles. Four friends lose half a million pounds in a rigged card game to a gangster named Hatchet Harry and have a week to pay it back. Tim Maurice-Jones’s cinematography is all texture and energy, with desaturated tones, tight frames, the kind of visual swagger that announced a new voice in British cinema. Statham plays Bacon, a street merchant, and he’s magnetic in a way that makes everyone immediately want to know him.
1. Snatch (2000)
Director: Guy Ritchie
Writer: Guy Ritchie
Cinematographer: Tim Maurice-Jones
Cast:
- Jason Statham as Turkish
- Brad Pitt as Mickey O’Neil
- Dennis Farina as Cousin Avi
- Vinnie Jones as Bullet Tooth Tony
- Benicio del Toro as Franky Four Fingers
- Alan Ford as Brick Top
- Rade Serbedzija as Boris the Blade
- Stephen Graham as Tommy
Fun fact, I spent the summer between 8th grade and high school watching this movie every day to try to memorize the whole thing. I got close. Snatch is Lock, Stock with a bigger budget, a deeper bench, and Brad Pitt doing an unintelligible Irish Traveler accent that is somehow the funniest thing in the movie. Statham plays Turkish, a small-time boxing promoter who gets tangled up in a missing diamond, a bare-knuckle fighter who won’t stay down, and one of the most terrifying villains in British crime cinema: Brick Top. Tim Maurice-Jones’s camera is even more confident here than in Lock, Stock. Guy Ritchie is having so much fun in this movie, and so is the audience. I love it so very much.
Summing It All Up
This was such a fun list to make because I got to revisit all these movies I adore. Statham is one of those actors who just seem like they love the job and the projects he picks.
Are there other movies you think should be on here?
Let me know what you think in the comments.s
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