Review: The Transporter
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Suspense/Thriller
MPAA rating: PG-13 (for violent sequences and some sensuality)
Running time: 1:33
Release date: 2002
Cast: Jason Statham, Shu Qi, Tcheky Karyo, Francois Berleand, Matt Schulze
Directed by: Corey Yuen

As charismatic as he is, Jason Statham should be enough of a spark to jump-start any routine action film with a decent script, credible acting and direction. But The Transporter possesses none of those necessities and after a lively, entertaining 10-minute opening, sputters and eventually stalls.

Statham, a favorite of filmmaker Guy Ritchie who cast him in Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, represents the only reason to check this wreck from director Corey Yuen, a Hong Kong director best known for his martial arts choreography for Lethal Weapon 4 and Romeo Must Die.

Yuen directs a script by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen that lacks cohesion, suspense and basic intelligence. There's little wrong with the latter if the rest of the flick is well done, but Yuen proves that he's much better at setting up martial arts scenes rather than assembling an entire movie.

There are some scenes, including a couple of pivotal ones, that make absolutely no sense whatsoever. The most important of all involves a kidnapping.

Statham stars as Frank Martin, a British citizen living and working in Monaco as a transporter. He will take anything or anyone anywhere for a price and with no questions asked. The movie opens with him picking up a group of bank robbers as they are just exiting the doors of their chosen target.

As they pile into the car, Frank realizes that they've broken one of his rules by altering their deal. Instead of three guys with a specified weight, four guys enter the car throwing off his escape plans. He simply refuses to go until the crooks eliminate their problem. Their solution is to cap one of their own and push his dead body from the car. Now wasn't that easy?

But for someone being such a stickler for his own rules, Frank eventually makes a mistake during his next job. It should've been a simple one -- take a package to a massive mansion and rake in the bucks. After a tire goes flat, he retrieves a spare from the trunk and notices that his package is moving. Being the nice guy he is, he opens it to discover a beautiful woman. He gives her a drink and let's her go to cozy up to a bush to go to the bathroom. But he provides her a long leash, yards away from where he is. Gee, do ya think he's going to find her on the end of it after a few moments? Of course not. And after he's forced to pursue and catch her, he takes her to where she is supposed to be.

He gets what he thinks is his payment from Wall Street (Matt Schulze), the package's owner, and minutes later, as he watches with his jaw hung low, his Mercedes blows sky high. In short order, his life is immediately turned to hell. Of course, he goes back to seek revenge and finds his former package Lai (newcomer Shu Qi) tied to a chair. While he breaks bones, shoots up bad guys, Lai uses the chaos to flee successfully to a car that Frank eventually steals. Of course, I'm still trying to figure out how she managed to maneuver herself and the chair into the back seat while still tied to it.

That's just a minor quibble when you look at The Transporter's other plot holes and problems. It turns out Wall Street and Lai's father are dealing in Asian slaves and dear ol' dad paid for her kidnapping. Sure would've helped if we knew why.

Then the story takes a couple of predictable turns into cliche and boredom. Of course, Frank eventually beds Lai and there are twists and turns that induce sleep.

What you can appreciate about The Transporter is some fairly impressive stunt work and martial arts choreography. And Statham gives Frank a sense of humor to match the machismo and charisma. He could indeed find his niche in action flicks, especially given that Vin Diesel is the only certainty in that genre now.

But he's not enough to make The Transporter worth seeing; it runs out of gas well before you truly appreciate his performance.