The Transporter 2 Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)September 2nd, 2005
TRANSPORTER 2
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2005 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
I'd forgotten how much fun James Bond can be. Sure, Jason Statham, in a repeat performance as the driver in TRANSPORTER 2, isn't actually playing Bond, but he might as well be. And his performance is so exhilarating and fresh that the Broccoli Family, owner of the Bond moniker, should take a serious look at both Statham and this film if they want to breathe some much needed life into an increasingly shopworn franchise. Watching Statham work is almost exhausting, since he literally throws so much of himself into his acting. Frequently Statham seems to be channeling Jackie Chan playing James Bond as a Spider-man type of comic book superhero.
The best part of the script by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen (who also wrote THE FIFTH ELEMENT) and the directing by Louis Leterrier (UNLEASHED) is how over-the-top it is. Bond pictures used to be good at this, but TRANSPORTER 2 puts them to shame. It is relentlessly ridiculous and happy to poke fun at its own inanities. It is absolutely hilarious as well. Our audience burst into frequent applause, accompanied by loud laughter, at some of the extremely implausible feats of the hero.
One of the few films that breaks the second film rule, it is the sequel that is actually better than the original. Pushing the limits and playing up its own intrinsic camp factor are keys to the reason that this movie is even more of a crowd-pleaser than the original.
When we meet Frank Martin (Jason Statham) this time, he is on a temporary assignment, driving Jack Billings (Hunter Clary), a little boy with wealthy parents, played by Amber Valletta and Matthew Modine, to and from grade school.
The film, crafted with a production design heavy on sleek adult toys, is dressed to kill. Frank's female protagonist is Lola (Katie Nauta), a bra-and-panties-only girl who likes sleek guns and her red heels as ridiculously high as possible. Her boyfriend and boss, Gianni (Alessandro Gassman), is a classic slime ball, right down to his "Miami Vice" suits and his crooked teeth.
A very complicated plot involving a killer serum, that sounds like it was lifted from some unpublished Ian Fleming novel, has the boy being kidnapped and Frank out to save him from Gianni and Lola and their thugs, who have money and electronic gadgets to burn.
A really fun film, it is not the type that requires or warrants deep analysis. What you're likely to be doing on the way home with your friends is arguing about what the most preposterous action stunt in the movie -- mine involves a bomb removal technique -- and laughing again as you remember them. It's the type of discussion which has no right answers and reminds us of what going to the movies is frequently all about. This is high powered, escapist entertainment. And few films deliver the goods better than this wonderfully and deliciously outlandish TRANSPORTER 2.
TRANSPORTER 2 runs a blisteringly fast 1:31. It is rated PG-13 for "intense sequences of violent action, sexual content, partial nudity and brief language" and would be acceptable for kids around 10 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, September 2, 2005. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com
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