The Transporter - 09/10/02

So, I just came back from seeing The Transporter, thanks to the guys over at JoBlo.com.

I'm not exactly sure how to start this review, but there are NO SPOILERS... the general consensus of viewers coming out of the film was that it was a bunch of cliched scenes and a seriously formulaic storyline. I have to agree. The only thing that tempted me to see this film was Luc Besson who, for some unfortunate reason, has not directed a film in over three years.

Besson gave us three incredible films early in his career. Subway, The Big Blue and La Femme Nikita. Subway starred a very young Christopher Lambert, who would go on, in 1986, to star in the sci-fi cult classic Highlander. The Big Blue would be the world's first real taste of Jean Reno. And La Femme Nikita would put progressive French cinema back on the map.

His work as a writer has surpassed his work as a director, production wise. After Nikita, and living through the bastardized American version of the film, Point of No Return, Besson would make his first American film, Leon (The Professional). It seems to me that in the mid to late 90's, Hollywood was wooing foreign directors from both Europe and Asia... giving them massive budgets for their films... but Besson went on to write his own films... directors like John Woo, Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark would have to take the action world's scraps... and only Woo would break out of that mold... kind of.

So, Besson would shoot Leon and The Fifth Element... and in 1999 would shoot his last film (for now), The Messenger, with then girlfriend Milla Jovovich.

After that, producing and writing. That's it.

His Taxi series became incredibly popular in Europe. Spawned two sequels and an American version of the film, now in pre-production, being directed by Kevin Bray, who gave us (shudder) All About the Benjamins. Thank god decent stories are going to decent directors... ugh.

In 2001, Kiss of the Dragon marked the first Besson film that he wrote and produced in the states (that he did not direct). I was much more excited for Dragon, than I was for The Transporter. And the main reason for my dismay in The Transporter was Jason Statham.

Besson's writing ability has reached a level where ideas are beginning to be recycled. You'll see a number of shots in this film that will be immediately recognizable... and with co-writer Robert Mark Kamen, who helped Besson with Dragon and The Fifth Element... it will be slightly more difficult to tell who is at fault for some of the work. A lot of the action, you can tell that the two writers got together to write scenes that utilized ideas we've come across, but in a unique way to make them slightly less recognizable. This works in some parts, and fails miserably in others... specifically the finale.

A lot of the film is made up with scenes that come about because of excuses in the plot, and assumptions that the audience member is able to make (or should make) during particular scenes. It's a shame, because we find ourselves places that have no relevance to the threadbare plot... just for actions sake.

I think that Hollywood is rushing for leading action stars. I think that the likes of the big four (from the 80's and 90's), Arnold, Stallone, Willis and Mel Gibson... these guys are getting old. Willis doesn't even do action anymore. Stallone hasn't had a hit in over six years... and Arnold needs more help in picking better projects. Gibson, as with Willis, has gone the road of the smarter roles.

Borrowing from other countries, Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Chan (ok, one country)... Hollywood has been able to capitalize on an entirely different kind of action film... but American audiences do have roots.

The bad one liners, the badass attitude, the bad one liners... ok. Over the past five years... how many actual American action stars have emerged? Not too many. I can only think of two... Ben Affleck and Vin Diesel. Matt Damon's last film was action, but he's not an action star. I picked Affleck because of his track record over the past five years. Nic Cage could be considered one. Tom Cruise is just a marketing tool, so lets leave that one alone for now.

Keep in mind that there are other action stars... but they do all kinds of roles... not just action. The 80's produced action stars first... and then, when their audiences were large enough, the studios sought to branch the actors out into lower budget comedies, etc... to try and make even more money on their images.

Statham has become increasingly more popular, ever since the two Guy Ritchie films... Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Statham did play opposite Jet Li in The One, but Li overshadowed him completely. He also played in the last John Carpenter movie Ghosts of Mars... but he didn't do such an incredible job, and he was mostly just a supporting role.

I don't think Statham has enough under his belt to warrant such a film... and I think that there will not be enough word of mouth to have this film make a substantial profit, to get Statham additional roles. What I don't like about his work is that he's the same person... every role is the same delivery, the same inflections, the same looks. There's no real personality with him. The thing (which is neither good nor bad) is that you know what you're walking into, when you see his name in the credits.

I don't know much about Qi Shun's work prior to this, although it all seems to have been produced in China... but her performance was ok. I think that the humor and dynamic between Shun and Statham was strictly from Besson's ability to write... she didn't add or take away from the actual character.

Francois Berleand has been working as an actor (mainly French productions) since the late 1970's. I couldn't tell you much about his previous work... but I think that even though he played the cliched cop who 'knows' about the life of men like Statham's 'Frank'... he performed the best out of everyone. He's obviously the most experienced of the cast and he provided a slightly more original take on that cliched cop.

Matt Schulze is the love child of Ray Liotta and some other guy, I can't put the name to the face. He's a conglomerate of a few different actors... kind of like how Christian Slater was a carbon of Jack Nicholson. He did an ok job... but playing the asshole badguy has some severe limitations... and they were all there... which again hinders the script. Schulze's character, Wall Street, was another cliched character... but this time with a pretty limited amount of on screen time. His previous work in Blade, The Fast and the Furious, Blade II (as a different character)... I don't remember him in these roles at all. He has a film coming out in 2003 called Torque, and with that film, I don't think he'll be able to show off his talents... which I think he might have. He wasn't bad, just something we've seen before.

The only other actor I'm going to mention is Ric Young. He was also in Besson's Dragon film, along with The Corruptor in 1999. This guy is the creepiest guy I've ever seen in a film. His face is really frightening.

Corey Yuen has directed a large number of Hong Kong action films. Kung Fu films, cop films... and The Transporter begins his foray into Hollywood cinema... for real. I mean, he directed No Retreat, No Surrender in 1985... but that is not a testament.

The direction on this film deals quite heavily with some trick photography and quick editing. Some of it works well, but the majority of it seems to take the place of actually letting action scenes unfold. The editing makes the film rush, very quickly... and it's not necessary. I really didn't see an actual style throughout the film that would depict the vision of a director... but, with Besson in the production seat... styles flow in and out fairly quickly and easily. A suggestion here, a push there... I'm sure it happened more than once.

All in all, this is a pretty bad movie. Two or three scenes make up for a lot of the bad scenes, but the terrible characters, bad acting and the excuses in the story and plot to create action scenes... I'm disappointed in Besson's work, which, as I said, was the only real reason I was interested in this film.