Dumbish, no soul

Rating: Null/10 (5 January 2005)

I watched this movie last night at a friend's birthday get-together, and I had never heard of it before (and hopefully I will forget about it again soon).
**INTERMITTENT SPOILERS AHEAD**
The whole movie is dripping with overused action clichés. So there we have the main character, the "Transporter", basically just a slick, high-profile delivery boy in suit and tie who drives a black 7-series BMW. Whatever shady business you're in, he'll handle the driving part, from bank robberies to smuggling people. He also is a retired Marine with quite a past (dind't we see that one too many times? Even Steven Segal is probably tired of playing a character like this by now). He has a strict set of rules while he is doing business, such as "no names", "no questions", "no plan alterations", blah blah blah....
One day he breaks one of his own rules as he opens a big traveling bag he is supposed to deliver - and in it he finds a gagged and handcuffed young beautiful Asian woman. From then on, mayhem arises, people try to kill him, blow up his house with guided missiles and.... oh yeah, the Asian girl falls in love with him and they make out. He soon gets to the bottom of things as he finds out that the girl's father is smuggling illegal Chinese immigrants into the country by the hundreds.
So much for the story, nothing new here, it's all been done before. With Luc Besson as the executive producer of this movie, your expectations are naturally high, especially after masterpieces such as "The Fifth Element" or the highly acclaimed "Leon". But this time around, Besson is not being his usual ingenious self. Sure, he delivers in putting together a (somewhat sleek) action-rigged spectacular - you'll see explosions, cool weapons, shootouts, martial arts scenes, car chases, flying cars, a dramatic highway chase involving an 18-wheeler and a small airplane etc. But somehow, with this movie, the whole appears to be less than the sum of its parts. Despite their sleekness, many of these parts do look a bit like recycled scenes from your average, cheesy Hollywood action flick, and premise and storyline are ultra-thin.
To get to the point: the movie has lots of (mostly visual) bells and whistles, but it has no soul. If you pick this one up from the video rental, be sure to also get a six pack on the way home.
5.5 out of 10