The Transporter ***½ (2002, Jason Statham, Shu Qi, Matt Schulze) – Classic Movie Review 2,200

Jason Statham stars as a crooks’ delivery boy who finds his latest package is a sexy dame (Shu Qi) in distress, in the flashy, fun and exciting if often clumsy 2002 action thriller The Transporter.

Jason Statham stars as a crooks’ delivery boy who finds his latest package is a sexy dame (Shu Qi) in distress, in this flashy, fun and exciting if often clumsy action thriller The Transporter, directed in 2002 by Louis Leterrier, with the action sequences directed by Corey Yuen (Jet Li’s fight director).

Statham stars as British Ex-Special Forces operator Frank Martin, now a hired gun living in France, who does driving jobs for a high fee and delivers packages in his tricked-out BMW without asking any questions. One day he accepts a job from an American man known only as Wall Street (Matt Schulze) to make a delivery.

Frank Martin has three strict rules: Never change the deal, no names, and never open the package. But this time he makes the mistake of breaking his own rules and looking inside the package he is delivering when he notices his package is moving.

Frank looks inside the bag and finds a beautiful, gagged young woman, Lai. Wall Street finds out that Frank has broken the rules and knows about Lai, and sends his mercenaries to assassinate Frank, who decides to protect Lai as well as himself. He agrees to help her rescue enslaved people from China, who are being smuggled into France as sex slaves by Wall Street, helped by Lai’s father, Mr Kwai (Ric Young).

The bone-crunching action and wild stunts are preposterously thrilling and Statham is a convincing presence as a cool tough guy, but some of the rest of the movie seems unrealistic and amateurish.

It helps that there is a reasonably well-crafted if far-fetched script by Luc Besson (also the film’s co-credited producer) and Robert Mark Kamen, who went on to write Taken (2008), Taken 2 (2012) and Taken 3 (2014) together. The flashy cinematography is by Pierre Morel, who went on to direct Taken.

Shu Qi learned to speak English phonetically for her role. When Lai goes to take a taxi, it is a white Peugeot 406, the same taxi the main character drives in Luc Besson’s Taxi (1998). Wall Street’s real name is Derren Bettencourt, as can be seen in the D.A.T.A.P.O.L. printout.

The film was cut for a PG-13 rating in the US, which is the UK release version. Scenes of violence are cut or toned down

It was a big hit, and Transporter 2 (2005) and Transporter 3 (2008) followed, both with Jason Statham. After Statham turned down making a fourth episode, The Transporter Refueled starred Ed Skrein in the 2015 reboot.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,200

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