Good action flick

Rating: 7/10 (22 April 2003)

The opening third of the flick is by far the best part. Frank Martin lives by his three rules: never alter the deal, no names, never open the package. Up until he breaks one of his rules the movie is an interesting look at a man who lives by his own terms in an extremely violent and dangerous portion of the world. Unfortunately after he finds the girl the movie breaks down into a series of cliches and explosions that are less interesting. The girl in particular, Qi Shu, is not a terribly good actress and is better as eye candy than whenever she speaks. In fairness it's probably her first English language movie. Still it's a solid action flick with a lot of high-powered stunts and a winning performance by Jason Statham in the lead, though one wonders what sort of movie would have resulted had Frank just closed the trunk again.