London Film Festival was great, as was Kevin Smith chatting away at the Indigo 02
London Film Festival was great, as was Kevin Smith chatting away at the Indigo 02
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Transporter was a very minor hit in the cinemas but obviously made good money on the release of the DVD as the eponymous 'Transporter', played by Jason Statham, returns for a second bout of high octane action. Transporter 2 is full of what you would expect… unbelievable car chases, innovative and exciting stunts, some cracking fight scenes, a villainess who spends most of her time in lingerie and a ludicrous plot… in fact everything that makes a perfect switch your mind off Friday night movie!
This time the Transporter has a nice easy driving job, looking after the young son of a famous politician. He drives him back and forth to school and wherever he, or his mother, would like to go. Of course not everything goes as smoothly and the Transporter finds himself caught up in a criminal masterminds incredible plan, one that involves drug smuggling and the anti drug stance of a certain
politician! He finds himself accused of the kidnapping of his charge and has to go on the run, staying one step ahead of the police while trying to clear his name and stop the bad guys.
I'm not a great fan of mindless action movies but if they are well made and don't try to pretend to be something they are not then they can certainly pass the time and entertain, and this most certainly does that. The running time of 87 minutes just flew by when I was watching it!
Transporter 2 is written by Luc Besson, mastermind behind the French Taxi films (which are fabulous), Nikita and Leon amongst others, and is in a similar vein to those. In all cases criminals are the focus of the film, though it varies by degrees from the petty criminal of Taxi to the cold-blooded assassin of Leon, and they are shown to be quite complex characters with their own moral compasses. Not always the black and white world most films inhabit but a murky grey. The Transporter is not a criminal as such but he is not a stand up citizen either.
So we have a European film that just walks all over pretty much everything that Hollywood has done of late, why is this? I think it is because Besson et al don't try to be clever, they don't try to make out there is any depth to the film with a complicated plot or subplot. They know exactly the audience they are targeting, young males in the main, and tailor things toward them.
As Transporter is the name of the film, and the main characters job, the car fetish is taken to extremes, not in a 2 Fast, 2 Furious way, but the man loves his car and he KNOWS how to drive it. This guy is one step above bodyguard defensive and offensive driver training. What he can do with a car is just unbelievable, just like it should be in this kind of film!
Jason Statham looks good, is cool, calm and driven to clear his name and to catch the bad guys. He is probably the one attraction for the ladies in this film. You wouldn't really expect him to be a great martial artist, or at least I didn't anyway, the spectacular opening scene where some thugs threaten to steal his car and a fantastically choreographed fight with a hose pipe that is straight out of a Jackie Chan film shows two things… how accomplished Statham actually is and the Americans how to do a classy over the top martial arts engagement.
When you add into the mix a tall, leggy female assassin (Kate Nauta, first role) who seems to be hell bent on killing The Transporter while clad only in lingerie (and before anyone says anything this makes perfect sense, after all if there were any male witnesses to her murders would they be likely to be able to give a good description of her face to the police afterwards?), and a preposterous villain who is over the top, but in a good way, and you have the perfect male action movie. When you through in a witty script, "He's not really a friend, He's French", some great secondary characters (The French detective visiting the US and you end up with a film that really, really should not be as enjoyable as it is. Top marks go to all involved, as Transporter 2 is a guilty pleasure from start to finish!
Pictures of Transporter 2 (DVD)
Frank in his car
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Production Year: 2007 - Action/Adventure - Director: Paul Greengrass - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, Edgar Ramirez, David Strathairn, Paddy Considine, Albert Finney
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Transporter 2knows what its audience wants and--like its title character--it delivers. ... more
This is a movie that has not only a fight choreographer but also a car stunt choreographer; a movie in which a female assassin wears nothing but a bra and panties be...
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Transporter 2knows what its audience wants and--like its title character--it delivers. ... more
This is a movie that has not only a fight choreographer but also a car stunt choreographer; a movie in which a female assassin wears nothing but a bra and panties be...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Jason Statham returns in his signature role as fearless ex-mercenary Frank Martin (aka The ... more
Transporter), a specialist in moving precious cargo of all kinds with a cool style and attitude. Now transplanted to Miami, Frank faces even greater tests of his...
![Transporter 2 [DVD] [2005]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78503059.jpg "Transporter 2 [DVD] [2005]")
Aug 29th, 2006
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