Top Notch Stuff

Rating: 9/10 (20 January 2003)

I went to see this film fully expecting the action to be great, but the dialogue to be utter pants. In all fairness, I was absolutely correct. The dialogue is awful and there are so many cheesy lines you could melt them down and use them in a fondu! However, in a way this only makes the film more watchable. There were countless times when myself and other people in the cinema cracked up (check out the moment when the flowing music kicks in when Statham opens the bag for the first time!) at moments which were quite frankly halarious! But the film really doesnt take itself seriously, and almost seems to recognize that some of the lines are so bad, they are good!
Jason Statham has always impressed me, especially in Guy Richie's Snatch, and in this film he doesnt let you down. Okay, so his accent may be dodgy as hell (we personally thought he should have kept the british accent to add to his hard ass image) but he is hard as nails and surprisingly efficient in the fight scenes!
Overall, yes the plot is naff, yes the script is tripe, yes some of the acting (Statham aside) is wooden, BUT yes the action is fantastic, yes Statham is cool and yes it is so funny I nearly wet myself!
Watch out Vin, Jason is the new action star!