The Barbeardian

 

The Transporter (2002)

Looking back almost 10 years ago, I might have stopped this movie from being made. If you would have told me that this franchise would spawn two pretty bad sequels and the beginning of Statham as Statham, I might step on that proverbial butterfly. As it is, though, The Transporter is one of the greatest, if dare I say, underrated, action films of our generation.


Jason Statham stars as a "no-questions-asked" courier Frank Martin. The film opens with an introductory scene with Martin as the getaway driver in a French bank heist. Here, we're introduced to the driver's rules:

• The deal is the deal
• No names
• Never open the package

The ensuing car chase throughout France sets the tone for most of the film. Fast cars, quick cuts, big action. Which is what people want when they watch a movie like this. Which is good, because the plot seems like a thin string to hold together some pretty great ass kicking and rubber burning.

Martin gets hired to take a package someplace, it doesn't really matter where. But about halfway there we learn that that package is a little Korean chick Lai Kwai played by Shu Qi. Frank breaks his third rule and opens the duffel bag she was in and letting her out to have some orange drink and take a pee.

Wrong move.

This is where shit starts to go sideways. Cops see Martin with a tied-up chick - he beats them up and puts them in the trunk, too. After dropping off the package, the bad guys deduce that he opened the bag.  They blow up his car with the cops in the boot. Frank is now double-crossed and on the run from both the bad guys and the French Police. The two head bad guys are played by Matt Shulze, a guy who always looks like a head bad guy, and Ric Young, one of the Asian henchman from Temple of Doom - you know, the one who looks like he opened his eyes at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Exhibit A: Always furrowed brow. Exhibit B: The asshole-style mustache.

Go ahead. Shoot me. If that means I don't have to look at your dumb face.

All of this is wrapped up in a tale of human trafficking. Long story short, Frank finds out that Lai is the daughter of the guy behind this whole operation and tries to stop them and save her.

Down this path we get some very nicely choreographed fight scenes, including fights in a garage with Martin covered in oil, on a city bus with about a dozen men, and even a fight in the cab of a semi-truck. He has some slick moves and hard hits making the fight scenes the real highlight of the show. As the titular transporter, he can handle himself behind a wheel or two as well. With a variety of chase scenes in various locations and vehicles, The Transporter really keeps the intensity up between the dramatic scenes, which there are a few more than it needed. Especially the ones that seemed a little shoe-horned.

At the end of the day though, The Transporter packs more than enough excitement to make up for the occasionally shoddy acting and generic plot.

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