Utterly enjoyable nonsense, a very guilty pleasure

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2007)

I don't think I quite fit the movie's target audience, but this big, dumb film cheers me up every time. Somehow all involved have achieved the amazing feat of making a second-rate Euro-doo-doo-chop-socky flick watchable, enjoyable, and even involving.
Jason Statham plays Frank, whose job title gives the film its name. But he's not just your average lorry driverhe drives a mean car and will transport anything, anywhere around the Med, for a price. He's careful, taciturn, precise and likes routine. Within that framework, anything goes.
Life breaks in on his steely solitude in the form of a woman (surprise!), and sets off a chain of events  but honestly, the rest of the 'story' is just thoroughly entertaining nonsense hardly worth summing up. Suffice to say that a bulked-up Jason Statham is surprisingly good in the central role  the only serious defect there being the daft transatlantic accent. Statham couldn't be more London if he tried.
The movie's colour, humour and pathos come from able sidekicks Qui Shu and Francois Bearléand, and from Frank's (human) inability to live out his life by the cold logic of the lonely code he has set himself. In its harshness, his code reminded me of the terse commands of the Way of the Samurai, but in its application it is funny or brutal by turns. It's a credit to Statham's acting (yes!) and fighting skills that he lifts this above cartoon fare, and to the cinematographer that it looks much better than it deserves to.
For yet more very enjoyable tosh, check out Statham's "Crank". I can't remember when I laughed so hard. That boy's got something