The Transporter

Heres the latest movie from Luc Besson - the guy behind Leon ( aka The Professional) and La Femme Nikita.

In terms of plot, Jason Statham plays Frank Martin - a man, who for the right price, will transport anything - as long as his rules are followed: he doesnt want to know names, he doesnt want to know what the package is, and he doesnt want the rules to be changed. But as things happen, on one particular job where hes transporting a beautifull woman (Qi Shu), he breaks his own rules, and looks inside the package. From this point on, things go downhill for Frank...

Partly written and produced by Luc Besson, it does have a very Leon-esque feel to it - kickass criminal who works alone, woman comes into his life, everything changes for him. But despite these similarities, The Transporter is a very different film; mainly because of the focus on Kung-Fu stylised action set pieces.

If martial arts action with gunfights inbetween is your thing, this this movie is for you - the set pieces and coreography are stunning (not unlike the female lead :P ), and there is one of the best car chases I\\\'ve seen for a while. The fights are ingenious - the oil scene fight is one of the most origional to come from a mainstream movie for ages - this might be down to the international production team, with French and American writers, a British actor, and a Japaneese direction. But despite the action, this film does lack in the plot department.

It starts off pretty well, with Stratham playing a quirky action hero who stands out from the crowd - but as soon as the fighting begins, he could be interchangable with any number of Hollywood heros, which kinda sucks. And the storyline is not only very predictable in places, but in other bits, its so confusing, you wont know what the hells going on.

This isnt helped by the fact that the other characters arent developed very well - Qi Shu looks cute, but thats about it; the bad guy, Wall Street, is nothing compared to the villains seen in other movies of this genre - notably Gary Oldman in Leon. These guys are paper-thin, and the plot is nothing more than a means of getting Stratham from one set piece to another. Dont get me wrong, these are nice bits of action, but by the end of the film, they begin to lack in originality - and you might be left a little dissapointed by the movies ending.

Its an above average action film, with fantastic fight scenes, but its let down by its poor storyline and clichéd dialogue. The acting is ok - but it still cant elevate this movie beyond the awful writing.

Overall, its definatley watchable - and Id reccomend it just for the kickass Kung-Fu scenes, but dont expect anything in the plot department. 6/10.

Added:  Wednesday, June 04, 2003
Reviewer:  Arktic
Score:
Related web link:  The US Transporter homepage
hits: 1358
Language: eng