Transporter 2 (2005) June 9, 2008
Posted by gproject in : Recently Viewed , trackbackDirected by: Louis Leterrier
Jason Statham continues his reign over the Hollywood hard-man genre with this sequel to the unexpectedly successful The Transporter. It appears that France really likes the car-oriented action flick as Luc Besson, writer of the sequel-spawning Taxi series, once again contributes to the script along with Robert Mark Kamen. In fact, similarly to Taxi, France has taken a firm control of this franchise, appointing native Louis Leterrier to direct and shoot the film locally where possible. For the French film industry, this forms a strong bridge to Hollywood and their money-spinning audiences. But that doesn’t necessarily make it a worthwhile construction.
The story goes something along the lines of this. Professional driver Frank Martin is back, this time delivering the most precious possession of the wealthy Billings family: their son Jack. The two form a relationship as he drives the boy to and from school, but it isn’t long before Jack is kidnapped by mercenaries and Frank must put his deadly military training back into action. Along the way he meets vicious assassins and discovers a biological warfare plan that may just kill the ones he is trying hardest to protect.
This fairly innocuous plotline takes the story from Man on Fire and drains all sense of emotional context and character development out of it, leaving us with little more than an excuse for Statham to drive around and inflict pain. A bit uninspiring you might think, yet when the film also adds a badly thought-out chemical threat into the mix, you’ll be wishing they had just kept it simple. Which makes this sequel a kind of PG-13 rated Crank [review] on downers - and anyone who has seen that particular mindless action romp will know that its pace and ‘R’ rating are the only things going for it.
Statham himself does exactly what is required of him and looks fairly comfortable doing it. Nothing here will stretch his talents beyond the hard-as-nails persona built up through his early roles in Guy Ritchie movies, so there’s really no pressure. Alessandro Gassman plays a ridiculous villain and never finds the same level of comfort, while Kate Nauta is mean enough to shoot a lot of bullets through gritted teeth, but nowhere near convincing enough to come across as anything but two dimensional. Everyone else just grins and bears it – undoubtedly aware of the script’s flaws - including François Berléand in a reprised but utterly pointless role as Inspector Tarconi.
What would have been impossible to predict on paper, however, is quite how bad the final film would look. The cinematography is action movie 101 - a revelling in the wild framing and fast-paced cutting that comes served as standard with all films of this ilk. But this is not where the problem lies. Rather more disturbing is the terrible quality of the CGI, which renders even the most accepting minds unable to comprehend exactly what the filmmakers were thinking. Add into this the most ludicrous car stunts ever conceived and you’re presented with a miserable action failure that will have you laughing more often than gasping.
The universal get-out clause here is that “it’s just an action movie”. The plain and simple fact is that nobody even wants it to be sensible or comprehensive, as long as it’s exciting and diverting. I don’t think Transporter 2 comes close to either, and you’ll need a really flexible tolerance for realism during all of the major set pieces. Where the film works best is in its simpler, hand-to-hand fight sequences, which are nicely choreographed and effectively shot. I enjoyed director Louis Leterrier’s last film, Danny the Dog [review], so I was expecting more out of him here. But it appears even he can’t get over the inanity of the central character, or the unimpressive plot. Not that this means it’s over - the aforementioned Taxi franchise reached its fourth instalment in 2007, so news that Transporter 3 is filming should come as no surprise. The French film industry is clearly not ready to burn this bridge quite yet.
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