The Transporter

2002 action movie

Rating: 13/20

Plot: A former special forces stud makes a comfortable living transporting things. Normally, Frank follows a few self-imposed rules that keep him out of trouble, but when he breaks one of those rules, he finds himself in the middle of a giant mess.

For anybody willing and able to ignore improbabilities, this action flick is going to hit all the right sweet spots. I really like Jason Statham, and he brings some quiet charisma to the action hero role. There's a charm there, probably because of his accent, and he can kick and tough-guy it up with the best of them. The action highlights include a ridiculous car chase, a handful of great fight scenes, and a scene that almost miraculously combines ridiculous car chase action with fisticuffs. This brings the blood to your nipples similarly to how the last few Fast and Furious movies do. That Statham's character stops long enough to have a sexual encounter is just beautiful.

Luc Besson gets co-writing credit here. That's a guy who knows how to class up even the stupidest action movies. Here, there's not much of anything you'd call sophisticated or intelligent, but it doesn't matter because this is the type of movie that will put hair on your chest. There were some spotty special effects, and the music is terrible, but the movie's the kind of fast-paced mindless fun that is likely to make you want to immediately give the sequel a spin.