As a movie reviewer, one of the key components of the job is noting, pointing out and taking a film to task over any and all of its flaws. Sometimes, however, when we're burned out from seeing too many movies and/or a certain picture arrives with the necessary infectious spirit, we let our guard down and end up enjoying offerings that get pegged as guilty pleasures.
They're rarely good in an artistic sense -- thus the "guilt" since you don't want to admit that you were entertained -- or in terms of credibility. Yet, there's some quality -- tangible or not -- that makes some films fun to watch. "Transporter 2" is one such picture, at least for a while.
Less a sequel to 2002's terrific action flick "The Transporter" than a gussied up Jackie Chan pic, the film should please action fans as long as logic, believability and/or the natural laws of physics and human mortality can be ignored for the nearly 90-minute ride. The film brings back the original's star -- Jason Statham ("Cellular," "The Italian Job") -- his sense of living by set rules, his tough demeanor and his ability to kick butt and do some amazing things with his car.
While the first film contained elaborate and sometimes credibility stretching action, the follow-up makes that one look like an Oscar winning documentary about scientific principles. Of course, not all films abide by such real-life rules, but this one goes so far that it threatens to ruin the escapist fun it otherwise deploys so effortlessly.
It is, in essence, a Chan film (at least the type of old before the Asian superstar went all Hollywood) complete with amazing stunts (including the use of various props as "weapons"), goofy to silly humor, over the top, cardboard villains, and a hero who taking a licking but keeps on ticking and more. For those who loved the original -- even if it ripped off a host of action films that preceded it -- this may be an unwelcome turn of events.
The new director, Louis Leterrier ("Unleashed") - working from a script by returning writers Robert Mark Kamen ("The Devil's Own," the "Karate Kid" movies) and Luc Besson (the film's producer and director of many other films) -- apparently didn't care as they throw all caution -- and adherence to the rules of physics -- to the wind with one outrageous sequence and stunt after another. The problem with that -- beyond its initial, inherent trappings -- is that with each one-upping, credibility is progressively stretched.
That eventually leads to the film being so outrageous that it begins to lose that precious and obviously hard to maintain guilty pleasure aura. A de-bombing of a car's undercarriage (you have to see it to believe it -- or not) and a fight onboard an out of control jet are the prime examples of the film pushing its luck in how much its viewers will be willing to accept.
As in any Chan film of old, the plot is simply a throwaway device upon which to string all of the action and fighting. It has something to do with a virus, a kidnapped boy and an even more outrageously intended crime, but none of it's remotely believable or interesting for that matter.
Statham once again makes his character a blast -- literally and figuratively -- to watch, even if his Chan-like stunts are obviously accentuated and/or assisted by all of the editing, etc. The rest of the characters range from two to barely one-dimensional in scope. Matthew Modine ("Le Divorce," "Any Given Sunday") and Amber Valletta ("Hitch," "Raising Helen") are present as the bickering parents of the kidnapped boy played by Hunter Clary (making his debut).
François Berléand ("The Chorus," "Seventh Heaven") reprises his role from the original film, but rather than playing the good-guy foil after Statham's character, he's reduced here to a comic relief/informational assistant part that doesn't do much for the overall effort. The same holds true for some guy playing a stereotypical cabbie who's also supposed to provide comic relief and shows up in several scenes.
Alessandro Gassman ("The Turkish Bath," "Toni") embodies the head villain who gets a funny line about his exaggerated accent, but not much else (beyond chewing the scenery after the standard sparring sequence that shows he's capable of battling the hero at the end). Before then, Statham's character must deal with the femme fatale character played by model turned first time actress Kate Nauta who often goes about her deadly business (dispatching people with her dual machine guns) while dressed in heels, stockings and some barely there lingerie.
By the time our hero finishes his various battles with her, other goons and then their boss, the film has broken so many laws of physics that it should serve consecutive life terms in some cinematic prison. Yet, its very goofy, over the top and high octane action may just win over enough viewers who will bail it out with decent box office returns and later video rentals and sales. Fun, if stupid and a bit too much after a while, "Transporter 2" rates as a 4.5 out of 10.
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