75% Fantastic 25% Wreck

Rating: 5/10 (4 October 2002)

Hello Everyone,
I had the privilege to see the sneak preview of the Transporter last month, and, well.....lets just say that the first 3/4 of the movie is fantastic! The last quarter of the film is an abysmal wreck. Here where the movie critic (I suck at being a critic, so keep that in mind) in me comes out: -warning SPOILERS ahead- The film is based upon a great premise as you all know (who wouldn't want to get paid large sums of cash for 'Transporting' stuff around in a kick-ass stat-of-the-art BMW), but there are a few places where your suspension of disbelief needs to be tightened up a few notches. The first car chase scene is fantastic with Jason Satham playing the cool, ultra-professional transporter Frank Martin, making his BMW jink around corners and fly around twisties the way anybody worth their salt does in GTA3.
The trouble comes when he is trapped on an overpass and surrounded by police cars. How does he get out of this? Make the car jump into the air from a stand still of course! I've done this in my car on many occasions, rev the engine, lock the independent front brakes, burn the rear tires, and let er' rip! OK, I know its a movie, I'll let that pass, maybe he had a running start of a few feet and a conveniently placed ramp, I'll give that one to them.
I won't go into the heat seeking, shoulder launched, chase-people-around missile scene, but I must bring up the scene where the hero is in a Cessna 182 at about 100 feet off the ground with a conveniently cooperative pilot. This scene has our hero chasing two cargo trucks that are carrying loads of illegal immigrants who will be sold into slavery (the reason he gets involved), now note that I said TWO trucks! Flying over the highway at about a hundred feet, he spots the trucks, tells the pilot to climb and straps on a parachute. Three seconds later, at about 8,000 feet.....woah!!! Hold on there, did I just say 8,000 feet? How can a small aircraft outperform a military fighter at full afterburner? Perhaps they implied that it was a few minutes later, maybe I just missed it...maybe.
Ok, he jumps from the airplane, streamlines himself and dives down to the highway. After opening his chute well behind the convoy (which is doing highway speeds), he actually catches up with the trucks! One minute he's behind them, the next you see him catching up with the trucks and landing lightly upon the rearward one. Alright, if anyone out there knows how a parachute nearing the ground can do 90km/hr (this was no HALO jump either) let me know, I just don't know anything about skydiving.
The last, most disturbing thing about this movie was that second truck. If anyone out there has seen this movie, please correct me if I'm wrong! The whole emphasis of the movie was the rescue of these two trucks full of people, but in the end scene, only one truck is stopped. Nobody seems to give a hoot about the second truck?!?! Did I miss some dialogue? Perhaps they said "cargo container" not "cargo container(s)" when they mentioned the people, I'm just not sure, but every time I heard them I swore they were talking about both containers (on trucks at the end). Will someone who is going to see this movie PLEASE listen for that, I would love to be proven wrong.
Overall, if you like action flicks I would go see this one at a matinee and leave after the oil-fight scene (you'll know). The characters are great, especially Frank, Inspector Tarconi, and the villain 'Wall Street', the fight scenes are really done well, and lest we not forget...the driving.
I rate it about 5 out of 10 and pray they rework the ending before it releases.