I was not a big fan of The Transporter, but for some reasons I’ve found myself really looking forward to The Transporter 2. Probably much better marketing this time around. Snagging my demographic isn’t really all that hard. Show some amazing stunts, lots of fights with decent martial arts, and finally add in a hot chick with guns in her hands and you can pretty much guarantee a huge male audience will show up to see your film. The ad campaign did just that, and sure enough there I was in the theater.
THE GOOD
Jason Statham is going to be a MAJOR action superstar. This guy just bleeds cool. He’s a sharp looking dude with a killer accent and has “mean SOB” written all over his face. Great martial arts moves and a fantastic build make him a shoe in for the action genre. Oh yeah, it doesn’t hurt that the guy is a very talented actor too (Damn, just see him in Snatch).
Most of the action sequences were everything I hoped they would be. And unlike the popular trend of shaking camera… The Transporter 2 holds the camera and shot still long enough so that we (the audience) can actually see what’s going on in a fight scene. Bravo!
The car chases were fantastic. So many films have car chases that it’s hard to care about them much… they all just seem the same. But the ones in this film really jumped out at me. Yeah… some of it was WAY over the top (which I’ll talk about below), but they were at least entertaining.
THE BAD
The dialog. Oh man the dialog in this film was just horrible! I lost count of how many times I laughed (not good laughs) at the truly horrendous lines that were coming out of the characters mouths. Trust me… if you see this movie, just look for this one: “Thank you. For the understanding… for the respect”. AARRGGHHHH… it was soooo bad.
Although much of the action was wonderful… sometimes is just went way to far over the top. When an action stunt or effect is too unbelievable, it looses it’s effect. Yes, most stunts in movies are not humanly possible… BUT… if they are at least imaginable then they can still awe us. But when a stunt is done that leaves us thinking “Oh give me a break”, then it has no effect and just makes the movie look silly.
OVERALL
An almost equal amount of strengths and weaknesses. The movie had it’s fun moments… and painful moments. Still, if you like action films you probably won’t mind seeing this on a Saturday afternoon sometime. I give The Transporter 2 a 6/10.
