Transporter 2 Blu-Ray with Jason Statham, Alessandro Gassman, Amber Valletta (Unrated) +Movie Reviews +Used DVD available for Swap

Not as good as the original, but still fun

Brian Reaves | Anniston, AL USA | 12/01/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you think the Hollywood movies have been a little slow in action this Summer, the cure has arrived. Jason Statham has returned to repise his role as Frank Martin, The Transporter. Although Frank has traded in his BMW for an Audi, the character is the same and the action takes the first movie up several notches.

This time around, Frank is doing a favor for a friend and is "transporting" the son of a government official to and from school. Frank and the boy have developed a bond since the boy's father (played by Matthew Modine) always seems to be away from home on business and has lost touch with the boy's life (Modine's character gets his son a complete baseball outfit for his birthday, only to find out his son stopped playing last year and is now a pretty good soccer player). Unfortunately, a Miami drug runner (played by Alessandro Gassman) has plans to kidnap the child and use him as the carrier of a deadly virus to kill his father. Now it's up to Frank to save the boy and find the antidote to cure him.

If you enjoyed the first movie, this one won't disappoint. The fight sequences here are choreographed again by Corey Yuen (though he doesn't direct this time around) and Luc Beeson had a hand in the screenplay. This movie doesn't stray far from the original formula that worked so well (fast cars, martial arts battles every few minutes, Statham's quiet manner even in the midst of a dozen guys out to get him, etc). Statham keeps the character low-key through everything, as if nothing can worry the Transporter.

Unfortunately, in an attempt to take everything a step further, there are a few sequences that go over the top. Using a wave runner-on land-to keep up with a bus, literally dodging bullets in a hallway, and Martin's unorthodox method for disabling a bomb under his car are just a few of the moments to make you cringe. And the final battle with Gassman is so far steeped in unreality you'll probably find it hard to swallow the premise. Still, when it comes to one-on-ten combat with an angry mob, Statham makes it beautiful. In one scene of the first movie, he takes down two police officers while holding Qi Shu on his shoulders. In this movie, he disables several bodyguards at once in the same non-lethal manner. In fact, the movie wastes no time showing us Martin still has the moves by giving us one of the best fights in the movie within the first five minutes. And through it all, he never wrinkles his suit. And the sight of Frank behind the wheel of a Ferrari made the entire theater start talking when I watched it. If you thought he could handle a Beemer, wait until he shows you what he can do with a really fast car!
The return of a character from the first movie (I won't spoil the surprise, since I never saw them in any of the previews) really shows us Martin's not just a driving machine-he's a man with friends.

If you're looking for deep, Oscar-winning performances and the feel-good movie of the summer, you won't find it here. If you're willing to suspend your beliefs in reality for a little while and want some over-the-top action and fun, you won't want to miss The Transporter 2.
"

I hate to be Late

Gunner | Bethlehem,Georgia | 03/31/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Transporter 2 DVD

In this sequel to The Transporter Jason Stratham is in Miami working as a chauffer/bodyguard for a wealthy family who springs into action when the young son of his client is kidnapped. The movie is full of high action car chases and stunts. Set in the beautiful Miami, Florida area, so again if you don't enjoy high action movies, just sit back and enjoy the view.
Highly recommended for fans of Jason Stratham , James Bond movies, and high action movies, especially car chases.

Gunner March, 2008

"

Good action with some silly effects

A. Hutchinson | Bronx, USA | 09/05/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I was not much of a fan of the original The Transporter (Special Delivery Edition), a film which had similar elements to this sequel, but by the end of the movie had pushed itself to such ridiculous levels of disbelief as to leave you rolling your eyes. "Transporter 2" is also patently ridiculous, but this time director Louis Leterrier (who did not direct the original) manages to keep the movie flowing and it's transferable fun manages to overpower the moments that lead our rational brain to say "What the . . ".

Once again, Jason Statham is Frank Martin, a 'Transporter', who moves a customer's valuables from one location to another. He asks no questions about his cargo, keeping to a code that allows him professional detachment. Frank has taken up a temporary job to help out a friend by transporting the son of a U.S. Senator (Mathew Modine). Frank has taken a liking to the boy (Hunter Clary), while his mother, Audrey (Amber Valletta), has taken a liking to Frank. In the midst of this, an international thief for hire, Gianni (Alessandro Gassman), assisted by his borderline dominatrix associate, Lola (Kate Nauta), have kidnapped the son, Jack, with the intention of holding him for ransom, and also making it appear that Frank had a hand in it at the same time. Frank escapes the kidnappers, only to start to believe that there is more to the kidnapping than meets the eye.

"Transporter 2" is one of those films that should come with the warning label to check your brain at the door. Lots of things happen in "Transporter 2" that are outside the boundaries of reality. Cars defy gravity, human beings perform incredible stunts and survive and people are often in the right place at the right time. Yet, the film has a strong charm that is hard to ignore. A lot comes from the presence of Jason Statham. He is all business as Frank Martin, and he cements the film with his no-nonsense attitude. Statham is the epitome of cool in this film, and that is just what it needs. We can't not help but root for this man at the center of the film, and our interest in seeing him pull himself out of his scrapes is at times just plain lifting. Alessandro Gassman has just the right amount of boldness to be fun as the villain and Kate Nauta seems to be channeling a punk rock superstar as a deadly, but sexy assassin.

The film's action, while borderline impossible, is well-staged. Unlike many recent action films that over-edit their action, director Leterrier keeps everything clear and the running. The fight scenes, choreographed by fight-master, Corey Yuen, are as good as anything in recent martial-arts action movies, with a lean towards slightly more realism than, say, Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

If you are looking for some entertaining action then this is it, just don't believe everything you see.
"

It's unbelievable

Amanda Richards | Georgetown, Guyana | 10/05/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Really - it is!

The stunts in this movie range from "okay, that could happen" to "no freaking way", but the one thing it has going for it is the non-stop action. Hunky Jason Statham is the main (the only) reason to watch this movie, and this time the delivery man with nerves of steel is slumming it as a chauffeur (as a favor to a friend). Things get complicated when his young passenger is kidnapped, and the Transporter has to draw on his military training to get him back to his parents in one piece.

The bad "guys" include the usual criminal mastermind who knows martial arts, and an assortment of goons in various sizes and shapes, but when we get to the pistol-packing babe in the underwear and the dumb and disheveled looking dude who's supposed to be a scientist, you can feel your eyebrows heading towards your hairline. Fortunately, you're so busy watching Statham do his thing that you can actually swallow the storyline, killer virus scenario and all.

Matthew Modine and Amber Valletta do their best with this jaw-droppingly impossible plot, but Statham again saves the day. Forget reality for eighty seven minutes or so, and let the Transporter do his thing.

Amanda Richards, October 5, 2006
"

Martial arts guilty pleasure, European-style

Michael J. Tresca | Fairfield, CT USA | 09/05/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Transporter is a lot like a live action version of Riding Bean. What, you've never seen that anime?

Okay, let me try again. Imagine the sad restraint of Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense. Then add the martial arts skills of Jet Li in Romeo Must Die and the driving skills of Robert DeNiro in Ronin. Mix well. Voila! You have The Transporter, a martial arts action flick with a bald Special Forces guy (Frank Martin, played by Jason Statham) in the lead.

The Transporter is one of those hidden gems amongst action films. I stumbled upon it through Netflix. When I told my family to watch it, they instantly became fans. It's one of the first DVDs I bought after renting it (the second being Donnie Darko).

The plot is almost ancillary to the point of the movie, which is to watch Frank drive real fast, kick butt and take names. The attractive wife (Audrey Billings, played by Amber Valletta) of a politician with an anti-drug agenda (Matthew Modine), hires Frank to shepherd her son (Jack Billing, played by cute-as-a-button Hunter Clary) to and from school. An Italian terrorist known only as Gianni (Alessandro Gassman, chewing up the scenery) and his psycho gun-toting girlfriend Lola (Kate Nauta) kidnap the boy. But of course, there's a twist as to why they want the boy in the first place...

There are a few attributes that distinguish The Transporter from the genre. For one, Frank is a cool, collected character. He lives by rules, always arriving on time and impeccably dressed in a black suit, black tie, leather driving gloves, and white shirt. If he were merely a wheelman for other lead protagonists, that would be enough, but Frank has much more going for him. He's a martial arts monkey, capable of climbing, jumping, kicking, and wielding just about anything he can get his hands on. Frank also has a heart of gold, for young women and kids.

Transporter 2 plays on all these foils to kick off the film. Frank creates a guessing game for Jack each time he picks him up from school. Isn't he sweet? The ladies love Frank: Audrey can barely keep her hands off of him. But Frank's a good and respectful kind of guy, so he rejects her advances. What a guy!

Once Jack is in danger, the gloves are off. Frank sets out to beat the living tar out of the bad guys, and he does it despite the fact that guns are frequently pointed at his head. It's all action, all the time.

Unfortunately, the movie frequently overreaches itself. Frank does some utterly ridiculous things, like launching his car over a ramp in order to scrape a bomb off with a hanging crane. As opposed to say, just reaching under the car to pry the bomb off. Frank leaps down to the ground thirty feet without a scratch, smashes through a wall (twice, once with his car and once with his body), and none of it seems to be more than an inconvenience. At one point, one of the characters asks, "Are you trying to be some kind of superhero?" Thanks to Louis Leterrier's over-the-top filmmaking...why yes, yes he is.

The other problem is that all these superheroics require a lot of CGI and the artists assigned to the movie were just not up to the task. Everything looks fake: the exploding helicopter, the sinking plane--whenever an effect is called for, a big pink sign screaming, "THIS IS CGI" practically accompanies the shot.

As an Italian-American, it's refreshing to see a bad guy who isn't a mobster. As a particularly loathsome piece of Eurotrash, Gianni comes up with an insane plan at the end that makes no sense except to set up a peculiar requirement: now Frank must keep the bad guy alive if he is to save the boy and his family.

The martial arts are amazing, as expected. Fans of the first movie will notice that Frank seems to be in a bit of a rut, as he fights guys with axes (yet again). And fans of Jet Li will be surprised to see Frank perform almost the exact same martial arts routine with a fire hose as Jet in Romeo Must Die. The connection: Corey Yuen, who obviously is hoping you didn't see both films. I'm not kidding, it's almost an exact shot-for-shot take of Romeo Must Die.

That said, Gianni also turns out to be a wuss. After watching what can only be described as Matrix-style Kendo training, Gianni provides meager resistance to Frank, battles in spinning Lear jets not withstanding. Why set up the bad guy to be so dangerous when he can be socked in the head a couple of times? Heck, Lola was more dangerous.

Throughout, Tarconi (Francois Berleand, reprising his role as befuddled French detective) helps Frank get the information he needs out of the U.S. government's databases and provides a good dose of humor along the way. The entire film has tongue firmly in cheek, so it's difficult to be too harsh on a movie that doesn't take itself that seriously.

All in all, Transporter 2 is a welcome entry in an otherwise crowded genre, with European sensibilities and style. Forget XXX, the Transporter is my candidate for the James Bond of the 21st century."

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