Film Review: Transporter 2

Transporter 2 (15)
Dir. Louis Leterrier

Reviewed by Matt Adcock


“Have a good life. What’s left of it…”
If you like your action movies slick, polished and impossibly fun – the film choice of the moment should be Transporter 2. For maximum enjoyment you should try not to think, at all, and on no account expect anything believable to happen, this is a film that is going to be remembered as the loudest, stupidest, most over the top, action overdose of 2005.

I found myself loving it.

Jason Statham’s heroic Frank ‘the transporter’ Martin can dodge bullets, survive improbable falls, take on 20 men in unarmed combat and drive his bulletproof Audi with more swagger than Jose Mourinho will ever have.
Here Frank’s up against a slimy villain called Gianni (Alessandro Gassman), who takes his job very seriously and whose chief hitman is named Lola - a supermodel with a clothing aversion (the hard bodied Kate Natua). I tried to find out a bit more about miss Natua and her online biography reads: ‘She started modelling at 15.’ As there wasn’t any more I can only guess it might one day continue ‘and hasn’t stopped since…’ but if you’ve ever had a hankering to see a gorgeous blonde kickboxing in her designer lingerie then Transporter 2 should be on your recommended viewing list.

Now I’m not trying to be sexist here but one might call Transporter 2 a ‘boys’ film – only inasmuch as it really loves its cars, is fetishistic regarding its handguns and deliver bouts of crunching violence ever few minutes without fail – many of which feature the half dressed Lola. If you’re a woman reading this and thinking ‘but Matt - I love cars, handguns and crunching violence’ then my apologies – you’re my kind of girl - but you get the idea.
The less you know about the plot the better (it’s wafer thin) but be assured that the car chases are up there with Bad Boys or Blues Brothers, the dialogue is dumb but quotable and the production values put Transporter 2 very much in the big league of action films.

Luc Besson (who produces and co-writes) makes a potent team with director Louis ‘Unleashed’ Leterrier. The Transporter films look set to continue delivering enjoyably daft, high end thrills for those who find James Bond that bit too high brow and complex.

Anyway, I did see another film this week – something about a Lion, a Witch and a Wardrobe - a sure fire contender for film of 2005 but more of that next week!!

Darkmatt Rating: ööö (stupid, violent and sexist action?... yes please!!)

Reviews of other films and stuff you might want to read indexed here

" 'Dirty' Lola had ruined another pair of stockings killing the cop for his jacket "