[.ca] Transporter 2 (Widescreen Edition)

From Amazon.com:
Transporter 2 knows what its audience wants and--like its title character--it delivers. 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 because, presumably, additional clothing would be too cumbersome; a movie in which crashing through a concrete wall in order to leap over a four-lane street will not even rumple the hood of the hero's car; a movie in which a drunken supermodel, after her advances are chastely and gently rebuffed by the hero, says "Thanks for the respect--that's what I needed most"; a movie, in short, for those who liked the first Transporter but found it too subdued and character-driven. Jason Statham (The Italian Job) reprises his role as Frank Martin, a perhaps overly diligent chauffer who will break bones if his duty is impeded. The sheer glee with which Transporter 2 casts aside logic, probability, and the laws of physics is infectious. If the sequence in which Frank flips his car upside-down in order to detach the bomb attached to his undercarriage doesn't reduce you to intoxicated giggles, well...you're watching the wrong movie. Transporter 2 is utterly shameless, unstoppably ridiculous, and completely enjoyable. Also featuring Amber Valetta (Hitch), Jason Flemyng (Snatch), and Matthew Modine. --Bret Fetzer

Frank Martin gets to do more behind the wheel in "Transporter 2":
My most significant complaint regarding the original "Transporter" was that Jason Statham's Frank Martin did not do as much fancy driving as his job title would suggest. I am happy to report that deficiency has been rectified in the 2005 sequel. The title character still gets to punch and kick people in creative ways in "Transporter 2," but he also gets several chances to get behind the wheel of his big black Audi Cobra and floor that baby. Originally I was hoping for car stunts in the great tradition of Steve McQueen, that is to say the sort of things you really can do with a car, but this movie decides to follow the James Bond tradition where the impossible is made possible and you just smile and go along for the ride. What we know about the Transporter is that he plays by his own rules and he is deadly serious about keeping them. You make a contract with him and he lives up to his side of the deal. Martin is the best at what he does and you need a lot of money to hire him, so imagine our surprise when we learn his precious cargo in this film is a young boy, Jack Billings (Hunter Clary). The boy's father, Jackson (Matthew Modine) is the new head of the U.S. narcotics agency and his other, Audrey (Amber Valletta), is now sleeping with Frank. I am not sure how anybody came up with Frank's fee to be a chauffer to a young boy, but of course he has promised the boy that nothing bad will happen to him, so you can anticipate where this one is going. But Jack is the target of more than a kidnapping plot, and while Frank takes way too long to figure out there is not something right at the doctor's office, I certainly do not blame him for taking a while to figure out the plan with plans in this one. That is because the bad guy behind what is going on, Gianni (Alessandro Gassman), is pretty sharp for a villain, once you get past the standard mistake of not killing the hero as soon as you can and instead talking too mcuh. But before Frank can get to Gianni, he has to go through the ultra violent Lola (Kate Nauta), who has the high heels, the tattoo on the inner thigh, and the big guns to hold her own against Frank. Not that they stand a chance in the end, but they clearly are going to put up a decent fight before the end. The screenplay by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen comes up with a solid series of set pieces to tie the plot together for director Louis Leterrier, who is also back for the second go round. Statham's Frank Martin broods a lot and you can see how he combines the laconic nature of Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name/Dirty Harry with the outfits and gadgets of the James Bond of your choice. Substituting action for one-liners certainly meets with my approval because then you do not have to worry about lame jokes. Instead the laughs generated by this film are going to stem from such unlikely bits as Frank stabbing a bad guy with the leg of a chair (and an unbroken chair at that) or finding an odd way to break another henchman's arm. The one liners, such as they are, belong to the comic relief character here and the only other familiar face from the original film, Francois Berleand, who is back as Tarconi, only instead of checking on Frank's possible criminal activity and always being a step or two behind, this time he is visiting Miami on his vacation and taking issue with the local cuisine. This allows Frank to have somebody on the inside, along with Audrey, once Jackson and the police make the mistaken assumption he is in on the kidnapping. More importantly, it allows Frank to get behind the wheel of a car and do what he does best.

Save Jason from himself!!:
I enjoyed Jason Statham's performance in "Snatch" and I enjoyed his performance in "The Transporter". Neither movie, while perhaps 100% believable, went terribly over the top. Then came "Crank" and "The Transporter 2". If Jason Statham continues with movies such as these we'll all soon be wondering whatever became of him. The world doesn't need another Steven Seagal in the movies, thank you very much. One is more than enough. An Audi so indestructible it's paint doesn't even scratch. A driver so skilled he can flip the car in midair and use a convenient crane to remove a bomb from its undercarriage. A femme fatale ("Sin City" style) who wears practically nothing and a jet (not to mention it's two passengers) who survive a full speed crash from the top of the atmosphere into the ocean nearly intact. Then there's the inept police ERT (SWAT for you Americans) unit... why go on? If you're reading this before renting, buying or even borrowing this movie, save yourself two hours of your life you'll never get back. Walk to the neighbourhood pub, have a beer and engage a stranger in conversation about today's weather, it will be time better spent!