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September 05, 2005
The Transporter 2
Directed by: Louis Leterrier
Starring: Jason Statham, Amber Valletta, Allesandro Gassman, Kate Nauta.
Rated: PG-13 intense sequences of violent action, sexual content, partial nudity and brief language.
Parental Notes: The violence here is mostly cartoonish, and the partial nudity consists of half a nipple, half a rear end, and a villainess who spends as much time as possible wearing nothing but her underwear. It walks a fine line as far as suitability for preteens, but teenagers should be fine.
The mix of elements that make up a good summer action flick is fairly straightforward: you need lots of action, not too much hokey romance/relationship stuff, a solid villain, and a hero you can really root for. Witty secondary characters, beautiful women, cool technology, and interesting locations are useful but not required. “The Transporter” had all of these in reasonable amounts. Frank Martin (Jason Statham) was a great hero, the villains weren’t too annoying, and the fight scenes were just great enough to make the suspension of disbelief they required possible. Sadly, its new sequel, “The Transporter 2,” gets too many of the elements wrong to be a great film. It’s passable, and if you enjoy Frank as a character it’s worth seeing, but be ready to roll your eyes a lot.
The film starts off with a bang when some young toughs make the mistake of trying to carjack Frank’s Audi. Frank, a former Special Forces man and mercenary driver-for-hire, takes them down in style but is still almost late to his appointment -- he has taken over chauffeuring duties for a friend for a month, driving a government official’s son to school and back every day. The kid, Jack (Hunter Clary) is crazy about him, and so is the official’s estranged wife, Audrey (Amber Valletta), but Frank doesn’t take advantage of either of them. He’s the criminal-with-a-heart-of-gold type, a good an honorable man who happens to make his living on the shady side of things.
So far so good. But things take a turn for the worse when the villains of the film show up to kidnap Jack as part of a plot to unleash a deadly virus. Bad guys in big action movies have to walk a fine line -- too much scenery chewing and they’re cheesy, not enough of it and they’re boring. Unfortunately, mercenaries Gianni (Allesandro Gassman) and Lola (Kate Nauta) fail utterly at walking that fine line. Gianni is the classic vain bad guy, spouting painfully stupid dialog at all opportunities (“Breathe, my friend! Breeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaathe!”).
Lola, meanwhile, is a standard psychotic, nymphomaniac villainess -- waving her guns around as often as she flaunts her androgynous, rail-thin physique in absurd clothing (who goes to a gunfight in three-inch heels?). Her dialog is almost as dreadful as Gianni’s. It may seem unfair to complain about cheesy dialog in a film which is clearly not meant to be taken seriously, but when every single line the two villains utter is incredibly lame, it’s hard to ignore it. Most dumb action movies have at least a little decent dialog for the bad guys, but not “The Transporter 2.”
There’s plenty of action -- we've got gunfights, hand-to-hand combat, car chases, a plane crash, the works. For the most part, the fights are as creative as those in the first film (which featured impressive use of bike pedals, among other things), although they are frequently even more over-the-top. The automotive acrobatics are completely ludicrous -- at one point Frank uses a crane to scrape a bomb off the bottom of his car in mid-air -- but they are jaw-droppingly cool.
Sadly, the ratio of fight scenes to non-fight scenes isn’t quite right. There’s too much badly-written romance material, with both Audry and Lola trying to seduce Frank, and too many scenes of the villains chewing the scenery to tiny bits. There’s a witty secondary character in the form of Inspector Tarconi, a carryover from the first film, but his charm isn’t enough to outweigh the lameness.
It’s a pity that “The Transporter 2” fails to walk that fine line between gloriously over-the-top and utterly stupid. It has moments of brilliance but one must endure so many lame scenes that it’s hard to truly appreciate the good bits. Fans of Frank Martin will probably want to catch this, as will those desperate for a new action flick, but everyone else is well advised to steer clear.
Posted by Ealasaid at September 5, 2005 04:06 PM
File under: Rated PG-13Comments
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