The Transporter

Rating:
Summary: "3 Men, 254 Kilo's.....that was the deal!"
Review: I think this movie was really an awesome action flick. Great fight sequences, car chases and awesome whitty dialog. Stratham is greeat in this movie. He plays the perfect role. The Ending was a bit weird, but the action was intense and anyone looking for a good time watching a movie should definetely get the transporter

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended for non-stop hilarity.
Review: I have been a bit concerned recently about the lack of RRDMs (Really Really Dumb Movies). I love RRDMs - some of them offer so much fun it is a crime to miss. Well, I finally hit a jackpot with "Transporter."

There are movies where plot is built upon a single stupid idea. "Transporter" is not that kind of a movie - each stupid plot idea is followed by the next one that makes this one look like a gem of a human culture. I am confident they used one of the big soap opera scenario writers to write a scenario for this one. Too bad they weren't allowed to put one of the characters in a coma...

You know, criminals are apparently really bad when it comes to driving. Most of them tried many times but failed to pass for a driver license. That's the basic premise of the movie. What, you are not rushing to buy or rent it yet?! Read on. Now, since the crooks cannot drive, they need a driver for hire to drive/transport them. The kind of driver that can transport a briefcase or a bag from one French town to another without asking questions. The one that is able to drive the bank robbers for some half an hour in a small town completely surrounded and followed by police cars and not get caught and/or identified (note to myself: move my bank accounts from small French coastal towns back to US on Monday).

So everything goes fine: the crooks get same day delivery without giving in to FedEx, the cops are happy because even though they suspect the protagonist to be the transporter, they cannot prove it (not a single scratch on his car - his driving instructor must be a happy man). It all goes downhill however, when he manages to look into a package during one delivery.

I will not delve further into the plot as I don't want to spoil your fun. The premise discussed here is nothing compared to the rest of the film. I especially liked the girl's father (Ric Young). He looked so unnatural (in Michael Jackson kind of sense) that I was sure that he would reveal himself as a woman at the end of the movie. All in all, the actors fit the plot perfectly: there is no Cannes or Oscar kind of performance here. Oh, and you actually get 2-in-1: a movie AND an endless BMW commercial, which makes "standard" product placement employed in other films nowadays pale in comparison.

To conclude: run, don't walk, to rent this movie: you will have so much fun it will hurt.

Rating:
Summary: Jason Statham Has Some Talent
Review: This is one of those movies that started great and moved well throughout until it got to the end where it all sort fell apart. Worth seeing for a couple creative fights...Otherwise rent Cradle To The Grave or Kiss of the Dragon. Statham is definitely the saving grace in this film.

Rating:
Summary: Run-of-the-mill action flick
Review: Action films always (well, almost always) follow the same basic pattern: Thin plot, flat characters (except the star), just action. Well that basically sums up "The Transporter". There's nothing too original or groundbreaking here. It just follows the typical action film formula of guns, explosions, and a hero who is practically immortal. Speaking of the hero, Jason Statham makes a great action film star. He has all the ingredients of one: he's strong, tough, quite handsome, and has a cool personality. He may have a very good future in the genre (look for him in other films such as "The Italian Job"). But beyond Statham, "The Transporter" doesn't have a whole lot going for it. Still the action sequences can be pretty entertaining. Things start off with a bang in an entertaining car chase, with Statham zooming around in a BMW. There's another good scene, which has Statham facing off against ten other villains. The one scene I didn't think was very well thought out was the truck chase, which looks very similar to the one in "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Another thing I ddin't think was very good was the chick of the film. She wasn't a good actor and isn't even the beautiful most Asian babe out there. Perhaps this aspect of the story just wasn't too high on the filmmakers priority list. And the plot? Well, as I mentioned there really isn't much of plot and therefore is not worth going on about. If all you're looking for is some mindless fun, this movie should be enough but otherwise go for an action film with a better script.

Rating:
Summary: Laughable
Review: Typical action laff-mobile that goes from bad to worse. Starts out with Stetham as the man in control, he quickly becomes a vehicle for kung fu action. Avoid this dud.

Rating:
Summary: The Quiet Man
Review: If the world were a different kind of place, Jason Statham would be a huge star. But as it is, despite strong showings in this film and in "The Italian Job," he's not.
Actually, Statham has all the right stuff: he's athletic, intelligent,sexy, honest (to a point)and physically imposing for a short guy. You know the kind of guy you'd share a bottle of Tequila with, let your sister go out with, have beside you when you go to beat up your brother-in-law or drive your Mom to the mall. He's a guy's guy and a woman's guy. He harkens back to the Gables, Stewarts, Fonda's of the world. He's the strong/silent type with extras. I'd really like to see him as a romantic lead, maybe in a film with Drew Barrymore or Jude Law.
This film is nothing new plot wise but it's done with style and grace and the scene of Statham and a bunch of bad guys and a drum full of motor oil is a classic.
If there is any justice in this world, Statham will be the next James Bond. But being that there isn't much, let's hope he has a long, brilliant career instead.

Rating:
Summary: Not perfect, but a heck of a ride with great style
Review: Like an exotic sports car, "The Transporter" is a triumph of style, with some great things going on under the hood, but not a few rough edges.

The film has a very non-American look and feel to it, which is alternately part of its charm and a bit off-putting. Jason Statham is a winning action hero, strong, sexy and cool, and doing his own stunts in a fashion more bruising and bone-jarring than even a young Jackie Chan ever achieved.

The story moves along at a rapid clip, and if the logic is sometimes entirely absent -- especially the lack of a response to some of the violence and explosions in the streets and in sleepy French hamlets -- the action set pieces are so good, it's hard to argue.

Statham's combat scenes in particular are nothing short of amazing. While they sometimes stray into the overly stylized fighting style in this post-"Matrix" film industry, the danger and outright pain of the fight sequences is convincing and thrilling.

"The Transporter" feels like the first Statham-starring film BEFORE his inevitable breakthrough film. Catch him here and be first in line for whatever that huge action hit will turn out to be.

Highly recommended for action movie fans looking for the next great action star.

Rating:
Summary: thin
Review: If you like chase scenes, fight scenes, beefcake and the thinnest excuse for a storyline, this movie's for you!

Rating:
Summary: A Fantastic Start, An Unraveled, Appalling Finish
Review: This film starts off absolutely excellently, with great pace and dialog, violence, a wicked car used immediately in a fantastic chase, good music, and a great on-location foreign setting; it's basically a BMW Film. Then you get a little plot, some complications, and some more really good fighting and shooting action. The opening was excellent, and I was looking forward to a great film. But as the film went on, the holes in the plot and the continuity just got bigger and bigger, the lead actress' ability to act got weaker and weaker, and the story got more and more stupid, until by the end it was just absolute crap. I was thrilled watching the opening, but by the end I was glad I'd not paid to see it.

I'm a Statham fan, of his work with Guy Ritchie, in "The One," and cursing John Carpenter for killing him off in "Ghosts of Mars." Statham is buff in the role, if a bit flat, due to his character. He's methodical, thorough, and completely professional, and it clearly applies to all aspects of his life. Yet in all he goes through--he goes through a lot--he barely shows a trace of anger, or surprise, or anything else.

Qi Shu is awful as the female lead, hollow and awkward, not knowing what to do with her arms. She's at her best when bound and gagged early in the film. The only time she comes off convincingly is when she's speaking Chinese. She is grotesquely thin, and just not that attractive, as stock Asian film beauties go.

I can see why this film didn't do well in the US. It's just too Euro, with the unfamiliar French scenery, the Mediterranean architecture, the metric measurements, the too-thick French accents. Even the Chinese actors are mushy when they utter their English. But luckily, when it counts everyone speaks English. And the bad guy's English is excellent.

Much like other action films, physics takes a holiday, with bullets penetrating 8-inch thick stone walls. A bad guy takes an entry-and-exit shot to the head, and all it leaves is a smallish glob of brain-goop on the back window of Statham's perfectly maintained BMW. Compare this to Vincent capping Leon in the face in "Pulp Fiction."

The obligatory love scene is comical, in that there's nothing in the preceding 30 minutes to create any chemistry or tension between the Statham and Qi Shu. And there's no romantic follow-up of any kind, no hand-holding, no knowing/loving looks, nothing.

The plot and continuity just get worse and worse as the film goes on. Statham jailbreaks with a hostage--cut to Statham in some beater Saab, with no police chase. He hops in a launch called "Cassis" at the quay, which in the next scene has been transformed into the "Mannon." My 7-year-old daughter noticed this continuity flaw; why didn't the filmmaking professionals catch it?

Later, in a port the size of Marseilles, how is Statham going to find a single container full of Chinese? With a stethoscope, naturally. This place handles probably 10,000 containers/day, stacked in blocks 10 across, 20 deep, and 10-12 high, yet apparently he plans to listen to each one. The flaws just accelerate. The bad guys ignite some sort of fuel/oil in the choppy waters of the harbor with weapons fire, but the same shots fired onto an oil-covered floor do nothing, not even sparks.

Granted, the fights are choreographed very well, in that Statham gets to take his shirt off a lot, and his moves are the coolest, strongest, most acrobatic, etc. The bad guys, who at one point outnumber him something like 9 to 1, come at him singly, each politely waiting their turn to attack. He beats and belts, but doesn't kill any of the bad guys off who are all out to kill him, as he did the four guys at the beginning (and, by the way, the two cops in the trunk of his blown-up BMW). Statham goes down only once, right when the plot needs him to, with a single kick delivered by one little guy whom he punched the living hell out of earlier in the film. Weak.

The final chase is an action-packed joke. Statham parachutes from a crop duster (where did that sport chute come from?) onto a truck moving at probably 60 mph. The bad guy appears on the opposite side of the truck from where his vehicle was less than 20 seconds earlier. Throughout the chase, there are two containers full of Chinese immigrants in the convoy, but Statham saves only one. Where did the other one go, with its assumed slavery-bound immigrants inside? And when they open the container up, it's not absolutely packed with people, but is only about 1/3 full, and there's no dead bodies in there, no piles of trash, no filth, no wretched urchins half-dead from 20 days locked in a metal box. Instead, a delightful and cuddly little Chinese child wanders out of the darkness for a loving hug from the wooden Qi Shu. Barf.

At times, the highly original Stanley Clarke-of whom I am a huge fan, and a fellow (weak/lame) bass player-soundtrack just wasn't matched to the film, its pace, mood, or scenes. There were a couple of times when really pounding hip-hop rap was playing, loud, over a fight scene or chase taking place in the south of France. That's just too forced, trying too hard, a sad ploy to be too cool, to appeal to one demographic too many. The soundtrack also was just too intrusive at times, taking over the action itself. This reflects poor post-production.

In conclusion, go ahead and watch, don't ask too many questions, and try to avoid paying for the experience. You'll get a fantastic opening, some good stunts and cool fighting, but characters and a story that unravel faster than the speed limit on the southern French autoroute.

Rating:
Summary: okay well...
Review: Come on guys, you knew this would be a mindless action movie. I'm not going to be as harsh on it. For B-level, i can say that this a pretty fun movie. Lots of explotions, not too much talking, over the top/unrealistic action sequences.

Okay but I do have one complaint and that's how uneven the movie is from one half to the other. It starts out as a slick james-bond like movie with great cinematography (think Jerry Bruchiemer) and towards the second half it becomes this cheesy Steven Segal sort of thing where one man fights off 10 guys with no problem.
Also, the ending felt a bit rushed. It seemed to have wanted to end so quickly that saving the girl, the cops arriving and the victims were saved all in about 2-3 of the last minutes.