Jason Statham 2010, accent expendable

For some time now I have perversely enjoyed the films of Jason Statham. They are perpetually so bad that they are sometimes good. So cheesy, so predictable and yet paradoxically watch-able. Sometimes. The real reason I enjoy some of his films is his accent. Coming from England like Mr. Statham I have been subject to American accents on TV and films all my life. Yet no-one has ever spoken like he does in his films, because, he cannot do the American accent.

Unless you are Hugh Grant and essentially play the same pathetic character in all of your films there comes a time when an aspiring or even established film star from the UK will be required to produce some kind of American accent, be that West coast, East coast or mid Western. Statham's accent is lost in the mid-Atlantic. It is literally so bad it is good.

For the life of me I do not know why Hollywood directors who cast him in so-called action films don't just get him to play an English character, they often get him to play an American. His accent is is convincing as Jean Claude Van Damme's 80's and 90's efforts though not as bad as Dick Van Dyke's or Keanu Reeves' British accents of times gone past. Often Statham's accent veers from a bad American effort to a Londoners voice but each scene is hardly ever the same as the previous one. To put it another way, he simply cannot talk in a straight line.

For my sins I downloaded his latest effort, The Expendables for a laugh this weekend and to kill some time. Expecting nothing but a bad accent I watched and was surprised to find that for the majority of the film he stayed in UK accent mode. Curses, but I guess even a stopped watch is right twice a day. Statham without 'the accent' is like a sandwich without bread. Anyway not surprisingly the film is rubbish and I've already forgotten the plot, so bad was it. May Statham's accent tribulations continue.

Jason Statham accent latest (2005)

Recently I've seen posters for a new Jason Statham film that's come out in Korea, Chaos. I checked out some reviews online but found out the film was made sometime in 2005 but was a straight to DVD release in most countries. It looks like Statham's star is rising in Asia so the film company may have tried to cash in on this with a belated cinematic release. It is hard to think of him as an actual film star (if that's what he is) due to his transparent lack of acting ability. Still his films are not bad, especially the tongue-in-cheek ones which are still on in heavy rotation on cable TV here. I managed to get hold of a copy of the film this weekend and watched it with the girlfriend. The film was OK but I am glad we didn't part with our money at the cinema. He managed to keep up his appalling attempts at an American accent. As mentioned before I do enjoy watching bad films/performances but this wasn't so terrible, if you take out the accent. I'm still waiting for a release date for Crank 2 in Korea and hoping it won't be too long away.