Promising start but after-wards it fails do deliver more realistic action movie

Rating: 5/10 (10 May 2008)

'The Transporter' defined Jason Statham as action star but I think he deserves better as we have all seen his great acting abilities in debut movies ('Lock, Stock...' and 'Snatch'). This movie really starts fine as we are introduced with Frank Martin, ex soldier, who is a mercenary "transporter". He moves goods from one place to another and he does it with no questions asked. So one day Frank breaks his own rules and he looks at the moving package. There he founds tied women. Of course he decides to help her...
Entrance car chase as we watch what Frank is doing for living has resemblance with Pirès/Besson 'Taxi' scenes and the whole story is set in France also. There are also clear reference with movies like 'Léon' or 'Ronin'. But never mind that, 'The Transporter' has obvious problems with reality, like lots of todays action movies. There are too many great explosions, our heroes special skills (drives with his feet, holds under truck at high speeds, bullets are not even wounding him...) and unbelievable acting from some actors (Matt Schulze is trying so hard to be bad that that is funny). There are some good fighting scenes with oil, on bus or at containers. Also Statham is good, Qi Shu pretty and François Berléand is French Alan Rickman (they look very similar to me).
To say long story short; good action, brainless fun with new action star Jason Statham!