Parker

Plot synopsis:
Parker (Jason Statham) is a professional thief, who doesn't steal from the poor or hurt innocent people. His mentor Hurley (Nick Nolte) asks him to do a five-man job with a crew he doesn't know, which consists of Melander (Michael Chiklis), Carlson (Wendell Pierce), Ross (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Hardwicke (Michah Hauptman). The job is successful, but Parker refuses to go further with another plan that will earn them millions. They shoot him and leave him to die in a lake. Having barely survived, he is found by a family who take him to the hospital, where he chokes out a male nurse, steals his uniform, and escapes. He robs a check cashing store to get funds, shooting one proprietor in the leg, and stealing a woman's car parked outside. Parker tells Hurley that he wants to go after Melander for double-crossing him, who he later discovers is in Palm Beach, Florida for another heist. The crew learn that he is alive, and uses their mob connections to get a hit-man named Kroll (Daniel Bernhardt) to go after Parker. He tries to kidnap Hurley's daughter and Parker's girlfriend Claire (Emma Booth). She narrowly escapes and goes into hiding at a Fish Camp. Hurley is worried and suggests Parker run away with Claire, but he refuses, completely intent on revenge against Melander.Parker travels to Palm Beach and poses as a Texan named Daniel Parmitt. Leslie Rogers (Jennifer Lopez) is a depressed, unsuccessful real-estate agent living with her mother (Patti LuPone), and struggling financially after a divorce. She is thrilled when Parker (as Parmitt) appears to become interested in her properties, because she is desperate for a commission. Leslie soon becomes suspicious when Parker only takes interest in a house that a man named Rodrigo is renting. In reality, Rodrigo is Melander, and is staying in this house with the crew in anticipation of a $50 million dollar jewelry auction from which they plan to steal jewels. Leslie becomes suspicious and eventually finds out that Daniel Parmitt is a fake identity. She offers her knowledge of the area as help to Parker, if he will give her a commission. He considers it after making her strip to make sure she isn't wearing a wire. Together, they plan to steal the jewels from Melander after he robs them from the auction. Leslie kisses Parker, but he stops it from going any further.Before the auction, Melander's crew disguise themselves as movers to plan their heist. They soon learn that Parker is in Palm Beach, and send Kroll to kill him. After a bloody fight, Kroll stabs Parker through the hand, but ends up falling from a balcony and dying. The next morning, local detective Jake Fernandez (Bobby Cannavale) arrives with questions for Leslie about Daniel after learning that she was in business with him. She is shocked when she discovers a bloody Parker hiding in her house, and tells Jake that Daniel was a waste of her time. At her workplace, Leslie is horrified when she watches a video of Kroll's death online, which was filmed by local onlookers. When she gets back to her condo, Claire is there stitching up Parker's wounds. Leslie is hurt, believing she had a chance to be with Parker romantically. Claire goes back into hiding at the Fish Camp.The crew successfully steal the jewels at the auction, and swim back to the house, where a weak and injured Parker has already arrived. Worried that Parker might get hurt, Leslie makes her way to the house and begins snooping around the garden. She is found and taken inside, where the crew abuse and grill her with questions, assuming she is working with Parker. Melander finds Parker and a fight ensues. Carlson starts to molest Leslie, and she shoots him multiple times with a gun she noticed under the table. Melander is eventually killed after Parker stabs and shoots him. All members of the crew end up dead. Parker and Leslie arrange for the jewels to be hidden and for her to receive her cut. She tells him that she never did have a chance to be with him, and they part ways. Six months later, Parker goes to Chicago and kills the mafia boss who hired Kroll to kill him. A year later, Leslie receives a hefty box in the mail containing thousands of dollar bills. In the final scene before the credits, the tomato farmers who saved Parker's life are talking to somebody about how they got all this money that changed their lives, and they credit the stranger they rescued, who they think was an angel sent to test them.

Tags: revenge, neo noir, murder, violence, flashback

Review:
It also has a better than usual cast and director for a statham action movie (Good villains + hot leading lady).
Apparently the director thought the same and cast her in the film as a walking butt to centre shots around in the time Jason is off screen, presumably to make JS' male fans feel less awkward and have an excuse about having an erection throughout the movie, because we all know how unsure of themselves "bros" are.It's a completely forgettable film you will probably regret paying actual real world money to see, because you will feel like you've seen this film at least 4 other times..
The choice of a caper which is set largely in Palm Beach, with its artificial, pointless display of wealth and no other reason for existence is the perfect backdrop for the ferocity of Parker in his battle with Michael Chiklis' Melander; Jennifer Lopez' clueless Leslie, who gets caught up without understanding what is going on, gives the audience a good point of view.Director Taylor Hackford is not a great director, but he is a highly competent one.
Well, SURE, there are places where you must suspend disbelief (it's not THAT easy to steal a car, is it?), and SURE there are plot holes, and SURE there are times when you say to yourself "How did he know to go there?" BUT...this is one enjoyable movie!The acting, the action scenes, and the eye candy (Statham for you XXs, and J-Lo for us XYs) are all great.
Who knew?All in all a good action thriller as we would expect from any Jason Statham movie even with a star who hitched her wagon to a profitable venture..but did good.
It is an Action pic, so good action, fun one-liners, and you are pulling for the good bad guys instead of the bad bad guys all the way.I've wasted so many hours watching movies that cost so much more to make and came with gushing reviews and were garbage, so when this one turned out to be unassuming, likable and fun, I was happily surprised.Also, silky and sexy performance from Emma Booth, and Lopez is fantastic in her role too.
I wanted to like this movie so much, because I really think Jason Statham has some serious acting skills and he deserves some good scripts.
As for Parker, everything is at least okay with those: the director Taylor Hackford is an accredited creator and names like Jason Statham, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Lopez are certain signs of quality and non-boredom.
It was actually better than I was expecting in some respects since I wasn't to keen on the whole Jennifer Lopez aspect going in but she plays a desperate, past her prime sort of character and thankfully not a love interest, so that worked for me.Not as many flashy fight scenes from Statham here but still enough good ones with unique aspects (knife through hand, chair to trachea, dive out car window) to keep me more than interested.
He gets beat up real bad a couple of times here with a serious amount of bloodshed.I also had to laugh at his attempt at being a Texan, yeah the accent was terrible but I think it was meant to be.Statham is a professional thief here, an anti-hero with a unique code of ethics who is double-crossed and left for dead by his former partners, then spends the remainder of the movie seeking revenge (and to hijack the crew's latest heist) while getting help from a real estate agent (Jennifer Lopez).This was kind of a long movie, going to multiple directions and several locations, and with a plot that wasn't as predictable as most action/ revenge thrillers tend to be, so I enjoyed those aspects.
I've got to give it to both Lopez and Statham for pulling off not only a entertaining movie, but for also doing really quit a good job of selling their respective roles.
Westlake's PARKER (who died in 2008) is nothing more than your typical, undemanding Jason Statham-centric crime thriller.The movie opens quite promisingly with Parker (Jason Statham), who is put in charge by veteran thief Hurley (Nick Nolte) to lead a crew of four: Melander (Michael Chiklis), Ross (Clifton Collins Jr.), Hardwicke (Micah Hauptman), and Carlson (Wendell Pierce) -- for a big heist at the Ohio State Fair.
There, he gets to know a struggling real-estate agent named Leslie Rodgers (Jennifer Lopez), who gradually learns the truth behind Parker's motivation and demands to get a fair cut from him as well.On the surface, putting a respectable Hollywood veteran like Taylor Hackford and BLACK SWAN screenwriter John J.
While his character as Parker is more of the same cool-mannered role we used to see him from other movies, he's always entertaining enough to watch for especially when comes to action sequence.
The movie stars Jason Statham so everyone knows the type of characters that he portrays....a guy which draws down action, action, shooting, guns, martial arts, more guns, explosions, fighting, and chase scenes.
A Kick-Ass Action Crime-Thriller, that doesn't lack the bite!'Parker' Synopsis: A thief with a unique code of professional ethics is double-crossed by his crew and left for dead.
Despite my expectations of seeing a standard Jason Statham action movie, I can still safely say that "Parker" honestly entertained me.
The main premise of the movie is that after being double-crossed by a gang of thieves that hired him, a man named Parker (played by action superstar Jason Statham) decides to steal the bounty of their next heist as revenge.
A lot of the characters like the gang's leader Melander (played by Michael Chiklis-famous for playing The Thing in "The Fantastic Four" movies) and Parker's girlfriend (played by Emma Booth) are underdeveloped and not given enough screen time.
Though I'm sure they would if this was an ordinary Jason Statham action movie, there was one certain element that grabbed my interest and honestly made me smile.Without a doubt, Jennifer Lopez's character Leslie Rogers (see below) stole the show.
Yet, Parker is not a loser film because its eponymous hero (Jason Statham) is not a loser; rather he's one bearded cool cat, who pulls heists with a set of principles deadlier than a gun or almost as deadly as his hands.
With John Boorman's Point Blank having adapted Westlake's The Hunter, nothing but good pedigree resides in Parker.Besides providing Parker with a reasonably hip and hippy femme fatale, Leslie (Jennifer Lopez), the film does the unusual by keeping him away from her and devoted to his girlfriend, Claire (Emma Booth).
Hooray for the real amid this unreal story: some dudes, even ones in white cowboy hats, love exclusively.Parker has minor characters somewhat lost in the Statham-Lopez celebrity: Bobby Cannavale plays a good-hearted West Palm cop with a yen for Leslie; Michael Chiklis is Melander, a shaved-headed ( like our hero) baddie pulling a jewel heist after he screws over Parker in the Ohio State job.
This however is Mr Stathams worst film I've ever had the displeasure of watching.Let me set the scene for you:Parker a professional thief is betrayed by his gang and left for dead.
Jason Statham's Weakest Film Yet. I generally enjoy Jason Statham movies and even though they have been getting more and more generic as they go along, I still tend to enjoy them for the most part.Unfortunately, this is not the case with Parker.Based on what I had seen from the trailers, I didn't go into Parker expecting it to be great, but at least decent with some good action scenes in it.
After seeing this garbage, I honestly don't have any desire to see a Jason Statham movie again for a while (Unless it's Crank 3).The tagline for Parker reads "To Get Away Clean, You Have To Play Dirty", and thats exactly what the people behind this film did..
But by then a contract killer hired to kill him and his loved ones (his girl Claire and her dad Hurley) finds him and a violent fight ensues.The next day the crimes happens and Parker has his revenge all planned out but didn't count on Lopez's character showing up at the wrong place at the wrong time.I guess people think of Statham movies as an action film subgenre, even though they are all very different.
A standard type of movie you would expect Jason Statham to make, not much store, great action scenes.Personally I enjoy the type of movies he often makes and while they are not going to be award winning or particularly memorable films they are always great to sit down kick back and just watch some action.
McLaughlin (Black Swan) screenplay of a Donald E Westlake novel, and it directed by Taylor Hackford (Oscar nominated for Ray).Statham plays Parker, a masterful thief with a straightforward code that he isn't shy about sharing.
Something different for Jennifer Lopez, but all-in-all an okay movie with okay acting, lots of fighting just the way it should be in these films, but in the end Jason Statham has a brand, a way were all his movies becomes the same, same acting, same action, same thing.There is nothing special or new about this one either, it is just plain good action and fighting, unfortunately no surprises, it's pretty much straight on payback fighting flick.
Directed by Taylor Hackford, who actually directed "Ray" (oh, how the mighty have fallen) and starring Jason Statham as the same character he plays in every movie, and Jennifer Lopez playing a sort of love interest character, who reeks of desperation (art imitating life perhaps?) "Parker" is neither a bad nor a good action film, but more so a forgettable one.OK, so I won't bother with a synopsis here, or a critique of this pretty flimsy storyline, or discuss how Statham and Lopez have absolutely no chemistry, or even touch on Statham's horrid Texas accent, because in all actuality, nobody reading this cares; when a majority of audiences (men primarily) probably paid top box office prices for the sole purpose of catching the shot of Lopez's butt, which had been teased in the trailer.
So while you do see her butt in some polka dot underwear, the consensus has to be that if you were one of those who paid 10+ dollars to see this scene in particular, you may come out of "Parker" feeling more than a little cheatedand probably ashamed.Final Thought: If this is the type of movie that Jennifer Lopez is reduced to starring in, then it is no surprise that when recently confronted by Latin periodicals as to her level of interest in playing Jenni Rivera in the sure to be forthcoming biopic, her answer was resoundingly positive.
'PARKER': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)Jason Statham plays Parker, the lead character of Donald Westlake's (going by Richard Stark) action/crime-drama novel series.
This is a good but routine Jason Statham action flick and it's definitely no 'PAYBACK' (or anything special you might expect from a Richard Stark adapted 'Parker' film).Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5qSQfmiLqM.
Deserting his girlfriend Claire (Emma Booth) and her Mafioso dad (a cameo from the gravelly voiced Nick Nolte), he hunts them down to the lavish Palm Beach Florida, and enlists a fledgling realtor Leslie (Jennifer Lopez), together they hatch a plan to catch his former crew whilst they undertake a jewellery auction heist.The first thing worthy of mention is that the plot, like all good/bad action B-movies, is utter balderdash.
Parker goes to take his revenge with the help of a local real estate agent Leslie Rodgers (Jennifer Lopez).I love Jason Statham as Parker.
I had high expectations going in that we would have a great action movie here.It doesn't hurt that it stars action hero Jason Statham, and the gorgeous Jennifer Lopez.
Directed with brio and panache by Taylor Hackford, the film features Jason Statham as a big-time robber who's left for dead by his cohorts (Michael Chiklis, Wendell Pierce, Clifton Collins, Jr., and Bobby Cannavale) after a post-heist falling out, proving once again that there is no honor among thieves.
Statham spends the rest of the film plotting his revenge against the men, employing real estate agent Jennifer Lopez as an unlikely accomplice to that end.While I probably could have done with a bit more of Chiklis and company and a bit less of Lopez, I must say that "Parker" has enough energy and spirit to ride up and over most of its shortcomings, including succumbing to that third-act curse that afflicts far too many action movies these days.
"Parker" is your by-the-numbers Jason Statham revenge/heist movie, and what it has to offer is pretty straightforward: the job goes South, our star wants his money, and he's gonna beat up a lot of guys in the process.
The real surprise of the movie came with Jennifer Lopez's character (whose story was much more interesting than Parker's).
A Nice Easy Jason Statham/Jennifer Lopez Movie-Reasonable Storyline-Professional Acting.
12/31/2018 A well rounded movie with a storyline that holds the viewer, played out in a realistic way by Jason Statham and Jennifer Lopez.
Parker, Taylor Hackford's adaptation of the Donald Westlake character (aka 'Richard Stark' creation), has about 45 minutes to an hour of a very good crime/heist flick with Statham performing surprisingly decently as the titular character, made iconic by Lee Marvin in the masterpiece Point Blank and memorable (in some circles) by Mel Gibson in Payback.
Jennifer Lopez is not a great actress, but she fits pretty good in the role of Leslie.In times where good fighting movies are rare, Statham is one of my last hopes for simple and good fighting action-movie.
If you've seen both movies you will discover that they are completely different, so fans of Westlake's novels featuring Parker might be disappointed if they expect to experience that action hero, because all they will find is another Statham movie.
Parker (Jason Statham) is working on his next heist after his long time partner, and now father- in-law, Hurley (Nick Nolte) recommends him and introduces him to four other thieves for an apparently easy heist: Melander (Michael Chiklis), Carlson (Wendell Pierce), Ross (Clifton Collins Jr.), and August (Micah Hauptman) who has close connections with the mafia in Chicago.
Last played by Mel Gibson in the film Payback, Parker's name was changed to Porter, is back on the bring screen with Jason Statham taking on the popular Parker character from the novels by Donald E.
As if Statham wasn't enough to bring this cool character to life, he's bringing an interesting cast along with him including Jennifer Lopez, Michael Chiklis, Clifton Collins Jr., Wendell Pierce, Bobby Cannavale and Nick Nolte, but is enough to make the film work?Parker follows a a thief who lives by the code that you do not steal from those who can't afford it or hurt people who don't deserve it, but clearly his crew doesn't share the same code and steals his stash and leave him for dead.
The Big man has had his moments it has to be said (Snatch, The Bank job) but for every good movie this tough, hard working British actor makes, there are a couple off average same old,same old action movies, and with a tagline like "payback has a new name" you'd be right in thinking that "Parker" is one off those.Statham plays a tough guy "Robin Hood" style robber, screwed over by his partners in crime, and heading out on a vendetta too get his usual tough guy revenge.
Those wanting an interesting story, will probably be fed up with Stathams slow seeking revenge, and those going too see it for Jennifer Lopez, will find that her being in the movie serves merely too kill time, and drag it out long enough to be a feature length revenge story.
"Parker" is a thriller made for the thrilling action movies fans and specially, for Jason Statham's fans.
In conclusion, this is a very recommendable movie, specially when you just feel like action, entertainment, a nice city to watch and attractive people like Jason Statham and Jlo. Do not expect anything very profound!
"Parker" is one of those action movies that you watch and feel entertained it's a crowd pleaser with a happy ending as everything ends in a way that's all most to good to be true like the anti hero Parker(Statham)getting revenge and getting money and splitting it with a woman Leslie(Jennifer Lopez) who needs it!
Anyway Jason Statham is Parker a thief who after getting double crossed by his crew of bad guys goes off and assumes his own new identity and he relocates and meets and has a friendship with an unlikely woman named Leslie Rodgers(Jennifer Lopez).
Lopez doesn't act in too many movies these days, but she plays the perfect fodder opposite Statham, lending good comedic timing to an action film that's serious from the get go.
'Parker' is everything that you have come to expect in a Jason Statham film.
The film would have been 1000% better without the Jennifer Lopez character.Not one of Jason Statham's better pictures; however, it does tick all the right boxes for an action adventure.
Parker is another film starring Jason Statham as he plays the lead crook in an action crime thriller.
Jason Statham's character was interesting in that he's a thief but reveals touches of goodness a few times in the film, unlike the villains (also thieves).
The only good thing in the movie and I'm surprised to be saying this is Jennifer Lopez, she was the only thing that made sense and her acting and comedy addition to this flick was impressive.Taylor Hackford (Ray (2004) and The Devil's Advocate (1997)) directing skills is not in question in this flick, it is the story and the plot that takes you by storm on how dumb and boring it is for an action film.
The movie plot is about a man named Parker (Jason Statham), I'm pretty sure you would have guessed that.