film: review

> THE TRANSPORTER (2002)
I wasn't planning on seeing this film and it suffers from scenes of extreme action overkill (XXX anyone?) but I still enjoyed The Transporter!

By John C. Lyons
Film Critic

Starring: Jason Stratham, Qi Shu

Directed by: Corey Yuen

Written by: Luc Besson

Genre: Action

Our Rating: 7 out of 10

For some reason my friend Dan and I decided that opening weekend of jackass: the movie wouldn't be sold out, we guessed wrong. With our top choice out of the equation we were faced with the age-old question of "Shit, what do we see now?!" I chose The Transporter. I didn't know much about the movie, but I didn't need to know much. It's an action flick written by French (oftentimes) mastermind Luc Besson and starring the man from Guy Ritchie's movies, Jason Stratham (Snatch and Lock, Stock, and 2 Smoking Barrels). However, without receiving a summer timeslot for its release you can pretty much consider most action movies that coming out in the Fall to be a serious piece of garbage. But for all its flaws The Transporter turned out to be an entertaining night at the theater.

Apparently actor Jason Stratham takes steroids. I swear this guy had a pretty normal build in the above mentioned Ritchie movies, but here he's huge! Stratham plays and ex-military guy who transports miscellaneous items (usually of the illegal kind) in his nice BMW for which he gets paid presumably a nice chunk of cash. His character (Frank, although he never once tells anyone his name in the movie) has a strong set of rules he follows for each job, we know that because for some annoying reason he states these rules fifty times in the first half of the film. So Frank breaks one of his rules and opens one of the packages he is delivering. Lucky for him though it is a cute Asian girl! What are the chances!? Once he becomes involved Frank finds himself in a whole heap of trouble!

Many hardcore action sequences follow. All are well done, and thankfully there is no use of any wires or Matrix-like slo-mo! Some scenes will always stick out in my mind for their originality, probably forcing me to buy the DVD in the future. The hilarious fight in the oil slick, the fight against two axe-wielding thugs, and the battle in the bus just to name a few are standouts. Overall, I would probably recommend seeing this one at a cheap theater or renting it down the line, however, if you really need to fill your mindless action urges The Transporter should not disappoint.

(02-1028)

related links:

The Transporter - official site