The Transporter (2002)

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

There are fun movies, guilty pleasure movies, even silly or ridiculous films... and they can all be enjoyed, to some extent. But this one is way below any of those standards. It feels like it was written during a drunk weekend, and with no re-writing. Someone had money to burn. I won't go into details, because they are worthless. I wanted to see action and camera work, as well as chase sequences, and even those failed. Fighting was badly coordinated, chase scenes lack sense of space and orientation and therefore believability, story is barely there, twists and plot points absolutely ridiculous, timing is off throughout... In conclusion: this film sucks in every way imaginable.

The Transporter movies all share the same basic elements. Fantastic action scenes, barely-there stories, and Jason Statham. In the original Transporter, we're introduced to Frank, Statham's character, and the absolute bare minimum of his background. The rest of the movie is car chases, explosions, and fights.I won't go into the plot, because it's pretty much only here to give Statham a pretext to hand out his butt-kickings. My favorite thing about these movies is that Statham is never really in danger of dying or being beaten. If he's fighting someone, they MAY get in a hit or two before puts them down. Even if it's like, 20 guys with machine guns, and all he has for a weapon is his shirt. The fight scenes are pretty cool, you can always rely on this series to add a few new wrinkles to the standard old sequences.There's some kind of smuggling going on that Qi Shu's dad is involved in, and Matt Shulze is somehow involved in it too. And François Berléand plays some kind of cop who is also Jason's friend, or something. Qi is the eye candy/damsel in distress/love interest, Francois helps move the plot along, and the rest of the cast are bad guys. That's pretty much it. Seriously.Don't watch The Transporter if you're looking for a well-written script or some compelling character development. Pop it in when you want to see some bad guys get the crap kicked out of them, pretty explosions, and a pretty girl.

An outlaw finds his life becoming all the more dangerous when he turns against a gang of criminals in this action drama. Frank Martin (Jason Statham) is a former Special Forces officer who lives on the French Mediterranean and has a lucrative second career as a underworld courier for hire. Martin will deliver anything anywhere, but he has three iron-clad rules - once the plan is in motion it cannot be changed, neither he nor his customers are to ever use their real names, and under no circumstances will he open the package. Martin is hired to make a delivery to a wealthy but unscrupulous American known as Wall Street (Matt Schulze), but after taking possession of the package he realizes that whatever is inside happens to be alive. Breaking his own rule, Martin opens the bag to discover a beautiful Asian woman, Lai (Shu Qi), who is bound and gagged. Lai briefly escapes, but Martin captures her, and delivers her to Wall Street as promised. However, after being given a parcel to deliver by Wall Street, Martin finds out what Wall Street is up to - in partnership with Lai's father Mr. Kwai (Ric Young), Wall Street is part of a scheme to smuggle Asian illegal aliens into France. Martin's conscience gets the better of him, and he sets out to rescue Lai and put Wall Street and Mr. Kwai out of business; however, as if this wasn't enough of a challenge, Martin discovers a French detective, Tarconi (Francois Berleand) has gotten wind of his illegal business.

Jason Statham is perfectly fine, and there is good stunt choreography by also-director Corey Yuen. But, Yuen, in the director's chair, doesn't know how to shoot those fight scenes, or the car chase scenes.The cinematography, such as it is, is shaky-cam. And, it is too close up. We know that Statham can fight, so by doing the close-up stuff, and doing too much cutting, it undercuts the stuntwork, and it makes you think that they had to cut because the actor couldn't do full, uncut fight scenes.The story has okay ideas, but even in 92 minutes, the movie is narratively uneven, so it basically starts and stops at irregular intervals.The Stanley Clarke film score seems divorced from the film, like it was something he wrote separately, and the editors just kind of cut and pasted it into the movie. A disappointing effort. The franchise is being restarted in 2015, so I am hoping for better then.***** (5 Out of 10 Stars)