Review: Transporter, The (2002)
Harvey S. Karten
# stars based on 4 stars: 3
Reviews by: Harvey Karten
20th Century Fox
Directed by:Cory Yuen
Written by: Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen
Cast: Jason Statham, Qi Shu, Francois Berleand, Matt Schulze,
Ric Young, Doug Rand, Didier Saint Melin
Screened at: Fox, NYC, 9/12/02
Scripter Luc Besson must have seen the handwriting on the wall
some time ago. The Parisian-born director, screenwriter and
producer got a hot tip that the French people prefer Hollywood
pics to the usual non-stop talky Gallic gems, so he told the
croissant-munchers what they wanted to hear. His best work, "La
femme Nikita," is the slick tale of a pleasure-seeking young
woman who chills with a punk-style gang but turns tail when
French intelligence makes her an offer she couldn't resist. If you
saw John Badham's "Point of No Return" as well, you traced how
the Americans ruined a perfectly good actioner with unemotional
acting. This time, however, Besson is merely a co-screenwriter in
a movie that's not going down in history for clever dialogue but is a
genuine crowd pleaser for its non-stop action and its cool, James
Bond-ish hero-villain. You could compare Cory Yuen's "The
Transporter" with "La Femme Nikita," both dealing with people
who do evil things but come around to do the right thing through
no fault of their own.
The titled transporter, Jason Statham in the role of Frank Martin,
is going places, not only in moving from locale to picturesque
locale on most types of transportation but in his future with the all-
American favorite genre of action-adventure. Statham is running
on Diesel fuel from the time he enters the picture to the moment
he makes France safe for escargot. As a transporter who zips
about town pretty quickly, he's something like New York cab
drivers, with the one exception that he knows where he's headed.
Give him an address in Nice or Marseilles or Grenoble and he'll
take your package there. He'll even carry people as he does in
the adrenalin-pumping opening scene as driver of a getaway car
for some awfully stupid-looking masked bandits (they look like the
guys in the Coke ad who surrender to the cops in return for a sip
of the beverage). Liking simplicity, he doesn't much go for the
complexity of carrying a live package, however, a duffel bag that
turns out to bear a sexy Chinese woman, Lai (Shu Qi), who
makes an honest man out of him as women tend to do.
The picture is all Statham's. Borrowing from Ang Lee's
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," Cory Yuen ("Lethal Weapon 4")
directs Statham who heretofore appeared in more offbeat roles in
Guy Ritchie's enigmatic "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels"
and in Ritchie's near-incomprehensible "Snatch." The transporter
not only drives BMW's and Mercedes, but is at ease hijacking a
private plane, swimming in the deep, and dodging Uzi-style bullets
and even bazooka shells, his desire to live fueled by Shu Qi's
character Lai. Lai's wicked father, Mr Kwai (Ric Young), working
with the smirking villain, Wall Street (Matt Schulze), is smuggling
Chinese people into the Cote d'Azur for purposes other than
playing the casinos. Francois Berleand turns up now and then
with a two-day growth as Inspector Tarconi, who also has a hand
in making Frank Martin see the evil of his ways.
Rated R. 90 minutes. Copyright 2002 by Harvey Karten at
Harvey...@cs.com
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JoBlo
RATING: 6/10
http://www.joblo.com/transporter.htm
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PLOT:
An ex-military man who now makes his living in the South of France as a
transporter for all types of goods for bad guys, breaks one of his own personal
rules of professional conduct, opens a contracted package and finds within...one
cute Asian chick with a great ass. Needless to say, the aforementioned bad guys
aren't hip to our man breaking the rules and fiddling with their parcel, and
prepare to blow his ass to kingdom come. A shirtless Jason Statham...ensues!
CRITIQUE:
The idea behind any "popcorn" action movie is to provide audiences with a
believable, charismatic "hero" and just enough over-the-top fun and action to
make up for the lack of depth in its storyline. Some popcorn flicks actually
manage to transcend the basic nugget of corn requirements, and are not only able
to provide their audience with escapism galore, but a solid story and believable
characters to boot (DIE HARD is the ultimate example of such a film). THE
TRANSPORTER doesn't check off all such requirements, but does provide enough
cool, exciting action sequences to make up for its recyclable plot, dinky
dialogue and lame bad guys. Another reason the film succeeds on some level is
the presence of a new "action man", a dude who seems ready to join Vin Diesel as
one of the few new action heroes of our day, a man who goes by the name of Jason
Statham. Up until this film, Statham was satisfied in playing slick secondary
characters in "guy movies", but he seems to have doubled his shifts at the gym
for this role and showcases enough intensity, grit and balls (sounds like an
order at Denny's), to make for an enjoyable 90+ minutes of fluff. If you weren't
a fan of this dude before, I see no reason why you wouldn't want to ride
alongside him after the machismo he displays here. Good show, mate! The film
also provides for a handful of groovy action sequences, starting with a frenetic
car chase a la RONIN through the cobblestone streets of the French Riviera. In
fact, the South of France provides for a gorgeous backdrop to the staple story,
as well as Statham's co-star, Qi Shu, who is not only a cutie-patootie, but also
provides for a gorgeous backdrop of her own. Writer/producer Luc Besson knows
his target audience as well as anyone and loads the film up with enough action,
to keep folks jazzed during the tamer periods, hip-hop, to sell those
soundtracks (not my groove) and kung-fu, ass-kickings, explosions and fire-power
to quench any 15-year old male's cinematic thirst (as well as immature adults
like moi).
Unfortunately, the film doesn't try to be anything more than what it is, and
despite the originality of some of its action scenes (I loved the "money shot"
of Statham kicking through that door and the "oil" fight in particular), the
plotline is as ho-hum as they come with a typical good-looking "bad guy" dressed
in black with polished facial hair leading his disposable crew of bumbling
side-kicks through the numbers of some idiotic "Asian slave trade" scenario. I
did like how the bad guys actually took the time to paint shark faces on their
missiles before launching them into Statham's home though-it's nice to know that
some evil-doers take that extra pleasure in their work. Things get even more
melodramatic when another over-the-top bad guy, this time Asian (dressed in
black with weird facial features), makes an appearance and brings along a
ridiculous relationship with his daughter. Thankfully for us, Statham keeps his
cool throughout, plays by his own rules, wears plenty of polished suits,
ultimately takes off his shirt more times than Vin Diesel at a photo shoot and
kicks bad guy arse left, right and even center. I also appreciated the chemistry
between he and the subservient Asian chickadee, and might even have bought some
of their "romance". Of course, this movie isn't about the plot (which you'll
forget as soon as the credits start to roll), the romance or the dialogue (most
of which is serviceable at best), but about action, explosions and ass-kickings
and if you're willing to sit through some less successful bits, like one of the
most ineffectual cops this side of Frank Drebin, you will likely enjoy the
goings-on limited by your expectations of what a movie like THE TRANSPORTER is
aiming to deliver. It is definitely the kind of film that will go down easier on
video, but if you're looking for some mindless action over the weekend (and your
girlfriend can't provide for it), this film is definitely ripe for the bill. And
oh yeah, show up without a shirt and get in for half-price.
Where's JoBlo coming from?
Armageddon (8/10) - Charlie's Angels (8/10) - Kiss of the Dragon (7/10) -
Mission Impossible 2 (7/10) - One (6/10) - The Professional (9/10) - Romeo Must
Die (3/10) - Ronin (8/10) - The Snatch (7/10) - Swordfish (7/10) - XXX (7/10)
Review Date: October 8, 2002
Director: Corey Yuen
Writers: Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen
Producers: Luc Besson, David Lai, Steve Chasman
Actors: Jason Statham as Frank Martin
Qi Shu as Lai
Matt Shulze as Wall Street
Genre: Action
Year of Release: 2002
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(c) 2002 Berge Garabedian
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Karina Montgomery
Matinee & snacks
IMDB: "This film is about a man (Jason Statham) whose job is to
deliver packages without asking any questions. Complications arise
when he breaks those rules"
Cinerina: "This film has the best car chase I have ever seen and I
hate car chases. Also the action is excellent and Jason Stratham is
perfect and why ruin it with a random unbelievable romance?"
I guess if I were you, I wouldn't necessarily watch the preview, read
those blurbs, and then run out to see the movie. That's why I get at
least 450 words to tell you why you will have a ball in this film!
He's a professional getaway driver, an interesting cinematic
profession by any standard, and damn can he drive that BMW. I was
seriously impressed and stimulated and I am always bored to
distraction by car chases and the like. It was breathtaking! It's
either a BMW 735 or a 765, depending on which character you believe,
and I suspect they will sell a zillion of them (even though it's the
1999 model). His is all tricked out, of course, as one would expect
a professional transporter like him to have. So, whiz bang action
stuff, no problem. But is it interesting? You bet, with a little
mystery too.
It transports you all right, to a world of excitement, action, and
intrigue, and it's worth nearly all of your money. Sure, there are
some leaps of logic, etc, but it IS an action movie, and it justifies
most of it very well. Can I just say oil fight? Oil fight! Maybe
it was cribbed from a Bruce Lee fight but who cares? It's great.
Super editing, including sound editing. Wow! Tension! Suspense!
Pow pow! Hey, what did you expect? "Meserizing, tour de force!"
Nah. But it is seriously a blast to watch and experience. Really!
The fights are up at Jackie Chan's level and our hero is actually
non-lethal in his approach, all tough talk to the contrary.
The film is marred, sadly, by two elements: a weird kind of horrible
Chinese rap soundtrack and a weird, kind of horrible pseudo romance.
Honestly, sometimes a romantic story line does help an action film
(Michael Biehn and his unconsummated urges for Terminator's Linda
Hamilton and Aliens' Sigourney Weaver), but sometimes, even when it
serves the plot, it just gets in the way. Chinese rap is less useful.
The Transporter's ersatz omance with Lai (Shu Qi) seems thrown in
purely for the Caucasian audience. We weren't buying it, either.
Directed by Cory Yuen & Louis Leterrier and written and produced in
large part by Luc Besson (Fifth Element, The Professional), The
Professional is slick, well-paced, and tons of fun. I wish it had
come out a month ago when it was still hot and boring, but I'm glad
it's out at all.
--
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These reviews (c) 2002 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward
but just credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks.
rev...@cinerina.com
Check out previous reviews at:
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http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society
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