{"id":2152,"date":"2013-01-29T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T19:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/?p=2152"},"modified":"2018-02-12T16:04:48","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T23:04:48","slug":"parker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/2013\/01\/29\/parker\/","title":{"rendered":"Parker"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Directed by: Taylor Hackford
\nStarring: Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Chiklis, Wendell Pearce, Clifton Collins Jr., Nick Nolte, Emma Booth
\nRated: R for strong violence, language throughout and brief sexual content\/nudity<\/p>\n

Anyone who sees the trailers for \u201cParker\u201d and is strongly reminded of the 1999 Mel Gibson movie \u201cPayback\u201d is on the money — both are based on novels from the same series by Donald E. Westlake (under the pseudonym Richard Stark). They\u2019re based on different novels, but have very similar premises: career criminal Parker (Jason Statham in this year\u2019s flick) is double-crossed by his associates after a heist that doesn’t meet Parker’s standards. He’s left for dead, but survives and sets out to get what\u2019s owed him. It\u2019s a classic revenge story that, provided you\u2019re willing to overlook a few glaring flaws, is well worth watching if you like Statham and the genre.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot to recommend \u201cParker.\u201d Statham is in his element, playing a principled criminal who has his rules and will not hesitate to use deadly force against those who break them. There are gunfights, hand-to-hand fights, lots of stealth and suspense, and even a memorable knife fight for Statham to show off his stunt and martial-art prowess. He also gets to show his softer side during the few scenes between Parker and his girlfriend, Claire.<\/p>\n

The secondary cast is mostly excellent. Nick Nolte plays Claire\u2019s father, a long-time associate of Parker\u2019s and a criminal himself. Michael Chiklis is the leader of the little gang that turns on Parker, and seems to be having a lot of fun in the role. The other members of the gang are mostly playing stereotypes — the tech guy, the enforcer, and the inept but well-connected kid — but you don\u2019t go to a movie like this for the character development. The actors and the action deliver 100%, and that\u2019s what matters.<\/p>\n

Where the film falls apart is its inclusion of Jennifer Lopez as a completely unnecessary and annoying secondary character. Too much time is spent putting the action plot on hold while her depressing life as a struggling real estate agent in Palm Beach is detailed. Although she\u2019s apparently supposed to act as Parker\u2019s coach and passport into Palm Beach society, she never really does, and what little she does to move the plot forward could easily have been handled a different way. Her character serves virtually no function other than to look pretty, provide ham-fisted and unconvincing romantic tension with Statham, and annoy the audience. She does come equipped with a delightfully eccentric mother, but her mom appears so little that the connection doesn\u2019t justify her existence. J-Lo isn\u2019t a bad actress, but she\u2019s working with awful material that does no favors for the film\u2019s pacing.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re willing to tolerate a character whose every appearance on screen is like nails on a chalkboard in order to get your annual ration of Statham-fighting-people-goodness, \u201cParker\u201d is well worth seeing in theaters. If you\u2019re not, wait for DVD so you can fast-forward through her bits. It\u2019ll bring the film down to a tight ninety minutes or so, and you won\u2019t lose much in terms of plot.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone who sees the trailers for \u201cParker\u201d and is strongly reminded of the 1999 Mel Gibson movie \u201cPayback\u201d is on the money — both are based on novels from the same series by Donald E. Westlake (under the pseudonym Richard Stark). They\u2019re based on different novels, but have very similar premises: career criminal Parker (Jason Statham in this year\u2019s flick) is double-crossed by his associates after a heist that doesn’t meet Parker’s standards. He’s left for dead, but survives and sets out to get what\u2019s owed him. It\u2019s a classic revenge story that, provided you\u2019re willing to overlook a few glaring flaws, is well worth watching if you like Statham and the genre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[20,92],"class_list":["post-2152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-mediocrity-at-its-finest","tag-rated-r"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/parker.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2oSX4-parker","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2152"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2781,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2152\/revisions\/2781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}