If you think about it, Jason Statham isn’t really doing anything in his signature brand of amped-up action movies that once-popular cinematic ass-kickers like Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal weren’t doing in their flicks fifteen years ago.

So why is it, then, that Statham seems about a million times cooler than those guys were?

Maybe it’s his alignment with directors who really know how to use him, like Guy Ritchie or The Transporter series’ Louis Leterrier. Maybe it’s his superior fashion sense or the instantly class-boosting British accent. Maybe – and most likely – it’s because he can crack skulls, crack jokes, and crash cars with more style than just about anybody else doing it today.

At any rate, Statham has managed to carve out a pretty solid following among action fans on both sides of the Atlantic, starring in a string of mostly entertaining movies and even pulling off the unlikely feat of making a receding hairline seem pretty cool (I can’t thank him enough for that one). This week, those adrenaline aficionados can catch him in The Bank Job, a British caper flick based on an actual robbery that took place in swinging London in 1971. Early reviews are pegging the fact-based film as one of Statham’s most entertaining and well-made efforts yet, and it’s nice to see that they’re at least making an effort to get it out into American theaters.

You might be surprised, however, that another Statham caper flick you haven’t yet seen landed on dvd shelves just a couple of weeks back. Chaos, completed in 2005 and released direct-to-DVD with essentially no promotion whatsoever, pairs Statham up with Ryan Phillippe as a couple of mismatched Seattle cops trying to wrap their heads around a bank robbery with a motive that might not be entirely financial. Though ordinarily, a movie with stars that recognizable – plus Wesley Snipes, in a smaller role – would almost certainly have to be a clunker if it bypassed theaters for a no-frills dvd release, Chaos, surprisingly, isn’t half bad.

Quite obviously inspired by Michael Mann’s cops-and-robbers classic Heat, writer/director Tony Giglio’s film doesn’t earn many points for originality, though the action sequences are well put-together and the plot has enough kinks to keep it out of yawner territory. Statham stars as Detective Quentin Conners, a hard-nosed cop who’s been on suspension after a botched hostage situation that cost a young civilian her life and Conners’ partner his job. He’s reluctantly called back to active duty (of course) when a slick, well-coordinated gang of thieves led by the enigmatic “Lorenz” (Snipes) seizes a busy downtown bank, taking dozens of hostages and demanding that Conners be the top cop on the scene. As the film’s title suggests, however, things take a turn for the chaotic when the robbers set off a bomb inside the bank, providing a smokescreen for them to escape amongst the fleeing (and mostly unharmed) hostages. The complicated part of the whole deal? Apparently, the crooks didn’t actually steal anything while they were there.

It’s up to Conners and his new partner, the straight-laced, book-smart Det. Shane Dekker (Phillippe) to figure out just what the hell took place inside the bank; complicating matters are Lorenz, who keeps making taunting phone calls to the cops, and Conners’ temperamental former boss Jenkins (Henry Czerny), who still holds a grudge – especially since Conners used to be romantically involved with the fellow detective (Justine Waddell) that he’s currently putting the moves on.

Giglio lets the twists pile up by the truckload, and while the film is occasionally hard to follow, it’s energetic enough that it doesn’t become frustrating – and, actually, it’s probably more enjoyable the less thought you put into it. Among Chaos’s entertaining distractions are several tense (if ultimately pretty repetitive) shootout sequences, an over-the-top motorcycle chase a la the Transporter movies, and slick cinematography that somehow manages to make gloomy Seattle seem almost as cool as Mann’s much-fetishized Los Angeles. Statham’s performance isn’t one of is best, but it’s bolstered by strong work from Phillippe (who played a somewhat similar role in last year’s excellent Breach) and Snipes, who drops his usual badass stoicism for a more dynamic and “fun” villain role.

While Chaos can’t really roll with the big boys of the heist genre – and it’s unfortunately pretty similar to Spike Lee’s Inside Man, though it actually completed production first – it’s still an efficient and decently put-together B-flick that deserved more attention than it got. I don’t think Statham fans will be disappointed, and anybody who grew up on generic 80s cop movies like I did should have an especially good time with this one.