Speedy and colorful, The Transporter establishes British actor Jason Statham as yet another next generation hybrid action hero. Known best from his roles in Guy Ritchie films (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch), Statham has a coolness that carries the film. After a great initial start, The Transporter loses its credibility, yet delivers an overall punch that makes this film worth seeing if you're in for a good fight-and laugh.
Frank Martin is an interesting character. He is part Clive Owen (from BMW Films), part Jet Li and part John McClain (of the Die Hard trilogy). He transports packages, whatever they may be, for the wealthy, outlaw-type clients, people who can pay for top quality work and need it because their deals are shady.
Frank doesn't worry too much about legalities or moral nuances. He doesn't want to know names, reasons or contents, just destinations and payments. He sets his own schedule, uses his own equipment. Rule number one, he declares, "The deal is the deal." No changes ever. No exceptions.
And so, when, in the first few minutes of The Transporter, Frank runs into a change -- one extra man to be transported following a robbery -- he refuses to drive. The cops are coming, time is short and the exceedingly self-possessed Frank won't budge, no matter how much money his increasingly anxious clients throw at him.
By the time the getaway actually gets underway, the passengers are panic-stricken, yelling and bouncing around in the car, but Frank remains supremely unrattled, speeding his car through narrow streets and over sidewalks, stopping and screeching, reversing and skidding, slamming gears and, in one spectacular instance, driving the BMW off a bridge onto a conveniently passing car-carrying truck. It's as thrilling as it is absurd.
Then the real "plot" begins. A gangster named Wall Street asks Rank to do a job for him: carry a duffle bag to a specific destination. Along the way, he hears thumping. Breaking one of his precious rules, he opens the bag and finds a beautiful girl, Lai (pronounced like "lie"), with her mouth duct-taped shut.
Frank teams up with Lai to foil Wall Street and Lai's father's attempts of smuggling in nearly 400 Chinese people to work as slaves. And along the way, of course, Lai and Frank fall in love.
Director/fight choreographer Corey Yuen and writer/producer Luc Besson make up for not explaining the character of Frank by at least giving him some great fight scenes. See especially the moment when Frank finds himself confronted by a passel of hard-bodied thugs, swarming all around him on a cement warehouse floor. Frank tips an oil drum, slicks the floor and proceeds to make full use of the darkly slippery surface, sliding his body along it, leaping and diving with unlimited panache and velocity. By the time Frank slaps a set of spikes into his boot heels, so he alone can traction his way across the oily floor, his adversaries are sprawling and falling like fish on a ship deck. The action escalates from here, with Frank performing any number of breathtaking martial arts, parachuting, underwater and road-warrior-style stunts.
The Transporter is a fun film to see for some mindless fun. Judging the film by its action sequences, it succeeds. However, as an action film, it is mediocre.
