The Transporter | Review

Diesel should take a bow to this new action star.

This summer the fashionable trend of fast cars and high kicks to the head has officially replaced the sexually charged teen cackle of the American Pie and co. High trace levels of octane are found through-out this collaboration feature film of martial arts director/film star Corey Yuen teaming up with producer/writer/director and godfather of French action films creator Luc Besson. This Euro-Asian action flick of 2002 contains the many recognizable Besson elements that vary from charter description, to the subtext of the eerily familiar scubu-diving adventures of a Big Blue-combined with the plenty of guns pointing without shooting scenarios from Asian cinema. With the common air-headed narrative of a Diesel’s XXX and the contemporary kung-fu kicks of a Blade II we have this feature, – a large byte sized movie version of the popular internet BMW Driver films.

In contrast to a Clive Owen behind the wheel, we have fellow countryman and Guy Ritchie regular- Jason Statham (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) adding the muscle to this action flick with a character that reminds us of a fragment of Besson’s better-known killers of Léon-The Professional and La Femme Nikita. With the shaved head of a Bruce Willis and the muscle of a Van Dame our anti-hero sticks to his rules, no not Jean Reno character in The Professional’s “No women, No kids mantra” but his own 3 rule-system. What happens next is a Ronin-like street tour of Southern France-basically a nightmare for automobile insurance companies.

The plot includes the familiar equation of ‘every action hero needs a romance’- this occurs when he the tough man breaks his own rule number 3-to never look at what’s inside the package. The surprise is the cute Qi Shu (So Close) whose undecipherable English comes off sounding like the screeching noise from the countless car breaks. She undoubtedly becomes his bubbling side-kick and a “turn me into a better man” mentor. But while the carnival of judo chop fun takes up most of the space-see the bus garage takedown,-the rest of the film sidetracks from the fun of a character with an attitude and plenty of style- for the mindless plot of the framed man who goes from bad seed to good deeds. The inexplicable subplots of the father/daughter relationship and the back-story of a military past is a bunch of non-sense to the overall scope of the picture with the confusing question of the cargo delivery; 400 hundred boat-people are picked up like livestock- are they replenishing the supply of sweatshop factory workers of La France? And what’s the deal with the local head chief at the police department, who seems to forget that the prime suspect should have to answer for the murder of two police officers before getting his get out jail free card.

Statham’s character isn’t as memorable as the other Besson favourites, and nor is he a common U.S release household name, but Besson and 20th Century Fox are playing it smart by using a promising trailer and adding an extension delay on the release date to maximize the potential for a profitable opening weekend. The Transporter is your type of film if you like tough guys with a chip on their shoulder accompanied by hot chicks and countless car accidents, missed bullets blood and bruises. But for the rest of us that like a little credibility in a story will find The Transporter especially hard it to sit through when the fists are tied up and we are left with a bad script and over-inflated characters.

Rating 1.5 stars