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The Transporter
Le transporteur
France / USA 2002
produced by Luc Besson, Steven Chasman for EuropaCorp, TF1, Current Entertainment, Canal+
directed by Louis Leterrier, Corey Yuen
starring Jason Statham, Shu Qi, François Berléand, Matt Schulze, Ric Young, Doug Rand, Didier Saint Melin, Tonio Descanvelle, Laurent Desponds, Matthieu Albertini, Vincent Nemeth, Jean-Yves Bilien, Jean-Marie Paris, Adrian Dearnell, Alfred Lot, Audrey Hamm, Sebastien Migneau, Laurent Jumeaucourt, Christian Gazio, Frédéric Vallet, Stefan Gudju, Sandrine Rigaux, Cameron Watson
written by Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen, music by Stanley Clarke, stunt coordinators: Jian Yong Guo, Pascal Guégan, car stunt coordinator: Michel Julienne
Transporter
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Once upon a time, Frank (Jason Statham) has been a top soldier in the
services of Her Majesty, but since he has retired to France and taken on a
job as driver for whoever criminal it is who hires him - which might mean
escape driver, drg courier or whatever else. He works after his own
rulebook, which earns him even the respect of inspector Tarconi (Francois
Berléand), who thus never takes him in for questioning, no matter how much
evidence points Frank's way. However, during his latest transport, Frank
breaks his own rule, to never inspect the goods, when he discovers it's a
beautiful girl, Lai (Shu Qui), and he shows her at least some human
decency before delivering her to baddie Wall Street (Matt Schulze). This
doesn't sit well with Wall Street though, so he sends Frank on another
errrand - with a bomb that explodes along the way, fortunately while Frank
was out of his car on his lunch break. Frank returns to Wall Street's
place, but with the baddie already gone, but he beats up his goons and
inexplicably ends up with Lai, who soon takes to him and wants him to get
his revenge on Wall Street and at the same time save 400 Chinese slaves
from a human trafficking ring initiated by Wall Street and her own father
(Ric Young). Frank refuses, but when Wall Street sends a squad of
ineffective assassins who blow up Frank's house while leaving him and Lai
unscathed, he has second thoughts - only to end up arrested when he trie
to beat the whereabouts out of Wall Street. But for noo apparent reasons,
the good inspector pretty much urges him to escape, and from there on it's
car chases, shoot-outs and fistfights nonstop until everything ends
happily to nobody's surprise. There are no two ways about it,
The Transporter is a pretty silly film, at least in
regards to screenplay: The whole thing is not at all thought through, is
made up from genre mainstays, banks on predictability and is free of
character development - and on top of that, several scenes and plottwists
don't make the least bit of sense, objectively speaking. At the same time,
the screenplay in all its silliness has a surreal or at least absurdist
quality to it, and in all its simplicity seems to be something one laughs
with rather than at. And in terms of action and spectable, this film sure
pulls all the stops, is wonderfully choreographed and executed, and
beautifully directed above that - all of which doesn't make The
Transporter an actually good film - but a guilty pleasure for
sure. |
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