The Transporter Review
Posted by Chris McCarver on 10.14.2002
How does Hollywood's latest non-stop action flick stack up?
The Transporter
Release Date: October 11th, 2002
A brooding criminal loner runs into a sweet and spunky girl that makes him reject his ways and do something heroic. By far, nothing we haven’t seen before, but in the hands of writer/producer Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element) and Hong Kong director Cory Yuen (Jet Li’s The Enforcer, The Legend), it’s never looked this cool.
Jason Statham (Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch) portrays title character Frank Martin, a disenfranchised ex-soldier who makes his living in Monaco as a freelance courier. A past he won’t talk about and the desire to keep his life simple leads him to lead his professional life by a strict set of rules: don’t change the deal in mid-run, no names, and don’t EVER open the package. It’s the breaking of that third rule that sends Frank’s life into a tailspin, when, while changing a flat, he finds that his package is a young Chinese girl named Lai (Shu Qi of Gorgeous and A Man Called Hero). Frank and Lai soon find themselves embroiled in a plot to smuggle Chinese slave labor orchestrated by an unscrupulous tycoon (Matt Schulze of both Blade films and The Fast and the Furious) and her own father (Ric Young of The Corruptor and Kiss of the Dragon).
It’s clear that the Hong Kong flavor is prominent in this film. There’s plenty of action sequences ranging from nail-biting car chases to a whole mess of high-energy martial arts fight sequences. Those who never expected Jason Statham to fit the chop-socky action hero mold are in for a rude awakening, as some of the fight gags prove reminiscent of the likes of Jet Li and Jackie Chan (and, yes, you DID read that right). Shu Qi ramps up the saccharin factor hardcore, making her Lai cute as a button and not just due to Shu’s looks. Veteran French actor Francois Berleand is a great unwitting sidekick to Statham, as a wizened police detective who plays dumb as to his knowledge of what Frank’s up to, but knows a lot more than he’s willing to let on.
Sadly, the Hong Kong directive flair that makes the heroes and the action something to write home about carries over that subgenre’s weaknesses, namely plot and villains. Schulze is capable as the villainous Wall Street, but as much as his player trappings paint him as the bigwig, it’s almost clear in the beginning that he’s only one side of the coin. And Young needs to consider the possibility of typecasting, as his oozing-with-contempt criminal weasel persona is something that he’s made both famous and infamous. Besson is a great storyteller and has the track record to prove it, but haven’t we seen the hard-boiled-hired-gun-goes-to-mush-for-cute-girl formula from him many times before? And perhaps, maybe one of these days, could we get an action film of this sort where every thug and his mother on the bad guys’ side WASN'T a seventh-degree black belt in something or other?
The 411: Despite its flaws, The Transporter is a solid action yarn that does what it’s supposed to do: deliver non-stop thrills and give you a new hero to cheer. Statham may have just carved himself a niche with this film, and it’s even money that his next project will be highly anticipated.
