The Transporter 2 [Blu-ray]

 

 

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My most significant complaint regarding the original "Transporter" was that Jason Statham's Frank Martin did not do as much fancy driving as his job title would suggest. I am happy to report that deficiency has been rectified in the 2005 sequel. The title character still gets to punch and kick people in creative ways in "Transporter 2," but he also gets several chances to get behind the wheel of his big black Audi Cobra and floor that baby. Originally I was hoping for car stunts in the great tradition of Steve McQueen, that is to say the sort of things you really can do with a car, but this movie decides to follow the James Bond tradition where the impossible is made possible and you just smile and go along for the ride.

What we know about the Transporter is that he plays by his own rules and he is deadly serious about keeping them. You make a contract with him and he lives up to his side of the deal. Martin is the best at what he does and you need a lot of money to hire him, so imagine our surprise when we learn his precious cargo in this film is a young boy, Jack Billings (Hunter Clary). The boy's father, Jackson (Matthew Modine) is the new head of the U.S. narcotics agency and his other, Audrey (Amber Valletta), is now sleeping with Frank. I am not sure how anybody came up with Frank's fee to be a chauffer to a young boy, but of course he has promised the boy that nothing bad will happen to him, so you can anticipate where this one is going.

But Jack is the target of more than a kidnapping plot, and while Frank takes way too long to figure out there is not something right at the doctor's office, I certainly do not blame him for taking a while to figure out the plan with plans in this one. That is because the bad guy behind what is going on, Gianni (Alessandro Gassman), is pretty sharp for a villain, once you get past the standard mistake of not killing the hero as soon as you can and instead talking too mcuh. But before Frank can get to Gianni, he has to go through the ultra violent Lola (Kate Nauta), who has the high heels, the tattoo on the inner thigh, and the big guns to hold her own against Frank. Not that they stand a chance in the end, but they clearly are going to put up a decent fight before the end. The screenplay by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen comes up with a solid series of set pieces to tie the plot together for director Louis Leterrier, who is also back for the second go round.

Statham's Frank Martin broods a lot and you can see how he combines the laconic nature of Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name/Dirty Harry with the outfits and gadgets of the James Bond of your choice. Substituting action for one-liners certainly meets with my approval because then you do not have to worry about lame jokes. Instead the laughs generated by this film are going to stem from such unlikely bits as Frank stabbing a bad guy with the leg of a chair (and an unbroken chair at that) or finding an odd way to break another henchman's arm. The one liners, such as they are, belong to the comic relief character here and the only other familiar face from the original film, Francois Berleand, who is back as Tarconi, only instead of checking on Frank's possible criminal activity and always being a step or two behind, this time he is visiting Miami on his vacation and taking issue with the local cuisine. This allows Frank to have somebody on the inside, along with Audrey, once Jackson and the police make the mistaken assumption he is in on the kidnapping. More importantly, it allows Frank to get behind the wheel of a car and do what he does best.

Although on one of the extras the producer tells us there is more story in this one, I felt it was more action. Nothing wrong with that but there is no mystery. In the first one we went through almost 2/3rds of the flick to finally find out why the woman was being "transported."

This one is pretty much a straightforward kidnap/chase movie with the usual shoot-'em-ups. Not that there is anything wrong with that but #1 is far superior as far as plot goes.

Jason Statham, though, has better more classic fight scenes (you know, armed men 6 to 10 vs. 1) that show he is now a cross between Gene Kelly and Jackie Chan in his fight moves combined with use of props.

The female assassin is classic from the concept of "yeah, let's have her shoot off her machine guns while wearing a bikini" to the way she fights in her final scene we have certainly never seen metallic beaded drapes ever used in such a creative way.

All in all great fun all around with enough stoicism under fire from Statham to make it all seem like Transporter, you never disappoint us.

When l got my blu-ray player, l wanted to make sure l got blu ray movies, l would watch fairly often. I love action movies, but with Jason
Statham, there is that plus from an actor who does his own driving and
all his own stunts.
Transporter 2 is just as entertaining as was number one, and there is
a 3rd installment also to consider. Blu ray is certainly easy on the
eyes, and the colour and crispness is unreal.
I also picked up the Die Hard series, where Bruce Willis also does all
his own stunts.
Excellent entertainment and priced right.

Don McParlan
Edmonton,Alberta
Canada

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1.0 out of 5 stars Save Jason from himself!!
I enjoyed Jason Statham's performance in "Snatch" and I enjoyed his performance in "The Transporter". Read more

Published on April 12 2008 by B. Anderson

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