Le transporteur

All action movies should strive to be this imaginative! OK, the plot was not particularly intriguing, but what action movie's actually is? But the plot was secondary to the action, it only served to make the bad guys bad and the good guys good. The rest was up to Jason Statham's considerable fighting talents.

There were some unbelievable yet jaw-dropping stunts, a terrific fight scene in oil, and some great car chase scenes. There were no smarmy one-liners making light of good action sequences as is too often the case in American-directed action flicks. The hero was cold, yet compassionate. He didn't kill unnecessarily, but when he had to, he was ruthless. There are many great action sequences, some so unbelievable you have to just shake your head and remember that action movies are not supposed to be based on reality. There is even a great shot of the hero jumping off a speeding semi while it races over a bridge onto the back of a bus going perpendicular to the truck under the bridge!! I mean, come on! It would never happen, but I have to give credit to the stunt coordinator who imagined the possibilities.

There is another hilarious scene where the hero chases down an airplane on foot, hijacks it, jumps out of the plane at great altitude in order to land on the back of a speeding transport with a conveniently located borrowed parachute! I am glad all crop dusters carry such indispensable equipment and that it is so easy to land on the back of a truck speeding down the highway at 130 KM/hour.

All in all, 90 minutes of sheer enjoyment. Even with the predictable ending, I have to highly recommend this movie. If you can suspend belief for a little while, you will be rewarded.

Nearby Nice, Frank Martin (Jason Statham) transports and delivers illegal cargoes. His business is supported by three basic rule: Rule no. 1 – The deal is never to be changed; Rule No. 2 – No names; and Rule No. 3 – Never watch the cargo. The day he breaks his own rules, he realizes he is transporting a Chinese girl, Lai (Qi Shu), and he gets in many troubles due to his fault. This movie is pure action having all the usual clichés: car chasing, explosions, fights when nobody uses guns, the lead actor gets some kind of involvement with the victim etc. But the choreography is excellent and the action scenes are great. Jason Statham recalls Bruce Willis in `Die Hard'. If the viewer do not think, he will have an enjoyable entertainment. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): `Carga Explosiva' (Explosive Cargo')

The Transporter (2002) was a fun action film that was directed by Jet Li's fight director Corey Yuen and it starred Jason Statham. Jason stars as Frank Martin. He's a hired gin who does driving jobs for a hefty fee. For his services he'll use his superb driving skills to get his paying customers out of a jam. He asks no questions and needs precise instruction in order to perfectly time his getaways. His number one rule is to never ask questions. One day he takes a gig from a sleazy and shady man named Betancourt (Matt Schulze). Instead of delivering the goods, he breaks his number one rule and peeks inside the package...

A fun action film filled with bone breaking action and wild stunts. People have unfairly slammed this movie for being unrealistic. What do you expect? The action scenes are performed to flamboyant ans stylized you have to suspend belief. It's one of those movies that doesn't throw in realism all of a sudden to make the movie more interesting. Jason Statham is pretty cool as well as the Transporter and he seems legit, not another tough guy phony. HE looks like he can knock the tar out of you in a real fight. Co-stars Shu Qi (she learned to speak English phonetically for her role in this movie).

Highly recommended.

The plot, fight scenes and dialogue were all pretty cliche and cheesy, no originality and at some points annoying. Music throughout the movie is also bad. Jason Statham was once again sensational - he is the only positive thing i can say for this movie. Unfortunately the rest characters were caricatures, very not convincing and untasteful, e.g. The girl's dad was the lowest point in the cast.

The movie is OK to watch after a difficult day, but don't expect much, this is not the kind of movie you will talk about with others later - and you will definitely find better movies to watch with Jason Statham.

I still rate this pretty high even if the last 10 minutes got totally out of hand and went crazy, action-wise. By "out-of-hand," I mainly refer to the usual excessive action and bad guys-keep-missing-good guys-even-from-short range-type mentality. Actually, a lot of the film is that but it's such a fun movie that I didn't care.

Jason Statham is very cool in the lead and it's he that makes this a decent film. I also enjoyed Shu Qi, a very pretty woman; the witty dialog of Francois Berleand and some stylish, tongue-in-cheek directing by Louis Leterrier and Corey Yuen. Another director whose films are known for their hip styles also co- wrote this: Luc Besson.

Some of the action scenes are outrageous. To Statham's credit, he did most of the action scenes himself. I guess he's a tough guy in real life, too. He's pretty amazing.

A no-brainer-but lots of fun movie.