This French-made film (mostly spoken in English) was good for a lazy Friday night with nothing better to do. The plot was paper-thin and some of the acting downright silly, but overall if you want some mindless action and violence it isn’t a bad movie.
The idea is: an ex-military special forces type now is retired and working as a “transporter”, i.e., someone who will drive any package anywhere for the right price. The fellow is more than a little anal-retentive, spending lots of time polishing his high-end Beemer and insisting on following his “rules” (of which there are three) down to the letter. Of course, the one time he breaks one of the rules it lands him in a whole lot of trouble, but then that trouble is what drives (so to speak) the movie.
French action is different from Hollywood action, and watching this flick you come away with a slightly different taste in your mouth. Japan Times film critic Kaori Shoji once said that Hollywood simply does some things much better than anyplace else, and she was talking about car chase sequences when she said it. But I don’t necessarily agree; the ones in this movie were plenty fast and furious, with a little Gallic cheekiness thrown in for good measure. The martial arts scenes – of which there were many – also owe a debt to French savate, which gives them something of an accent as well.
Jason Statham as the lead is appropriately brawny and seems to have a brain lurking around somewhere as well. Qi Shu plays her character with an exotic prettiness that works well in contrast. All in all, Transporter is not something that’s going to stay with you for years and years, but well worth the price of a rental.
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