The transporter's next job consists of delivering a small suitcase to a location. All goes well until he gets a flat tire, opens the trunk and sees the suitcase moving. When he opens it, he finds the lovely Qi Shi, a pretty young Chinese actress who manages her role well, in spite of the fact that she speaks very little English. No problem though because there is very little dialog anyway. Mostly, things blow up, including our hero's luxury house and the pair are forced into a daring underwater escape. There is more and more action and more and more people getting killed and some sort of redeeming value in the plot about saving Chinese slaves from a cargo container. The most important thing in this kind of film, however, are special effects and the martial arts of the hero who can knock out a dozen armed men with a few well-placed kicks.

This is a film targeted to teenage boys. So what is it that kept the eyes of a mature lady like me so glued to the screen? Perhaps its because the action was so intense and outrageous that it just locked in my attention in a way that wound up to be totally relaxing. By all my generally standards I should have hated this film. But sometimes I like to take a mini-vacation from anything meaningful. Hence, I cannot help but recommend The Transporter.


Highly recommended for non-stop hilarity.   December 7, 2003
 13 out of 26 found this review helpful

I have been a bit concerned recently about the lack of RRDMs (Really Really Dumb Movies). I love RRDMs - some of them offer so much fun it is a crime to miss. Well, I finally hit a jackpot with "Transporter."

There are movies where plot is built upon a single stupid idea. "Transporter" is not that kind of a movie - each stupid plot idea is followed by the next one that makes this one look like a gem of a human culture. I am confident they used one of the big soap opera scenario writers to write a scenario for this one. Too bad they weren't allowed to put one of the characters in a coma...

You know, criminals are apparently really bad when it comes to driving. Most of them tried many times but failed to pass for a driver license. That's the basic premise of the movie. What, you are not rushing to buy or rent it yet?! Read on. Now, since the crooks cannot drive, they need a driver for hire to drive/transport them. The kind of driver that can transport a briefcase or a bag from one French town to another without asking questions. The one that is able to drive the bank robbers for some half an hour in a small town completely surrounded and followed by police cars and not get caught and/or identified (note to myself: move my bank accounts from small French coastal towns back to US on Monday).

So everything goes fine: the crooks get same day delivery without giving in to FedEx, the cops are happy because even though they suspect the protagonist to be the transporter, they cannot prove it (not a single scratch on his car - his driving instructor must be a happy man). It all goes downhill however, when he manages to look into a package during one delivery.

I will not delve further into the plot as I don't want to spoil your fun. The premise discussed here is nothing compared to the rest of the film. I especially liked the girl's father (Ric Young). He looked so unnatural (in Michael Jackson kind of sense) that I was sure that he would reveal himself as a woman at the end of the movie. All in all, the actors fit the plot perfectly: there is no Cannes or Oscar kind of performance here. Oh, and you actually get 2-in-1: a movie AND an endless BMW commercial, which makes "standard" product placement employed in other films nowadays pale in comparison.

To conclude: run, don't walk, to rent this movie: you will have so much fun it will hurt.


Jason Statham finally makes his mark...   April 25, 2003
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

Looking like a Brit version of Bruce Willis, Jason Statham made his debut back in Guy Ritchie's classic crime caper/comedy "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels." Since then he has been given a few side roles here and there in "Snatch" (or Lock, Stock 2 as I like to call it), John Carpenter's "Ghosts of Mars", and then he teamed up with Delroy Lindo to track two Jet Li's in "The One." But who would've guessed that he finally got his own film, and a kick [butt] action film at that. Ever since Corey Yuen and Luc Besson collaborated on "Kiss of the Dragon," I knew that any film they did together from then on would be golden. And "The Transporter" definitely lives up to that standard. Sure there's nothing new here: how many times is a bad guy gonna get a change of conscience over a hot chick, right? And unlike the others, there is actually some good chemistry going on between our hero and his damsel in distress.

Basically, the film combines some great European atmosphere (The beautiful southern coast of France) with some incredible fight and action sequences. Corey Yuen could pretty much create a fight scenario out of virtually any environment. Now I know you could easily replace Staham with Jet Li, but you know what? He really proves that he can hang with the big boys in this film. I mean, he did ALL HIS OWN STUNTS. How awesome is that? Not even our great American action actors like Sylvestor and Arnold can say that. My only criticsim of the film is that I think they should of beefed it up a little bit and went for the R rating. Other than that I think it's a great little action/martial arts movie with a European flavor. It will definitely make you reminisce over the days when Van Damme and Seagal used to make great Action fliks. I can't wait to see what Turkish has in store for us next. Ladies and Gentlemen, a new action star has been born.


Jason Statham had better become a big star.   April 4, 2003
 10 out of 10 found this review helpful

The title of the movie is The Transporter. That's apt, considering it's Jason Statham's character, who truly steals the entire movie. It's been a VERY long time since an action star has made the kind of impression Statham has, who's delightfully cool and charismatic, physically agile and imposing, and simply a great deal of fun to watch for every minute he's on screen.

The Transporter was 2002's best pure action film, loaded with thrilling stunts, fast-paced car chases, and some of the most memorable fight scenes (the oil-slick fight is a classic). True, there's not much of a story and a lot of the other actors are pretty bad (Ric Young, Matt Schulze), but the pacing is tight, the action's non-stop, and Statham and Qi Shu make for a surprisingly decent pairing. This is enthusiastically recommended to action fans.


Delightful chases, fights, actors and locations   January 2, 2005
 8 out of 10 found this review helpful

OK - a good deal of fight scenes and chases cross the lines of belivability (after all, it is just a movie), but both the chase scenes and the fight scenes are delightful to watch as are several of the actors.

Jason Statham, plays Frank - a transporter who will transport anything without asking any unnecessary questions and following few simple rules - one of which is never to look into packages he is transporting.

His problems begin when he decides to take a look, because in the package he was transporting there was obviously something alive and moving. The package is a chinese girl Lai (played by delightful Shu Qi), whose father is involved in smugling Chinese slaves. She wants to stop his father and in a process involves the transporter, who happens to be very well trained in combat. Here the chase and the non-stop action begin with one good guy fighting against a whole organized gang of bad guys.

Other than the chases and fight scenes, and in spite of the unbelievable scenes, I liked the Frank's character - his head is screwed on right - he is focused on what he is doing, he is well-organized, he plans whatever can be planned and when things don't work out, he just moves on - there is no waste of time or energy on bemoaning one's destiny or planning vengance for damages suffered. If something is gone, you simply create a new thing and a new life - a healthy attitude.