PLOT NEITHER HERE NOR THERE; SO WHAT?Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic THEY HYPED the wrong bald guy. It turns out that Jason Stratham, not Vin Diesel, deserves to be the next action hero. Or maybe Diesel just needs to star in a movie that's as much fun as ``The Transporter,'' which is fast and furious in ways that ``XXX'' only dreamed of being. Whereas ``XXX'' meant to position Diesel as a Bond for the attention- deficit crowd but ended up collapsing into lumbering self-parody, ``The Transporter'' casts aside all pretenses from the opening frames and doesn't let up until a belated (and unfortunate) attempt to pull together some kind of plot. Too bad they hit that speed bump. This is one movie that would have benefited from completely forgetting about the story and concentrating instead on showing Stratham's character simply transport stuff. Stratham plays Frank, a taciturn tac·i·turn adj. Habitually untalkative. See Synonyms at silent. [French taciturne, from Old French, from Latin taciturnus, from tacitus, silent; see tacit. bloke who uses his souped-up BMW BMW in full Bayerische Motoren Werke AG German automaker. Founded as an aircraft engine manufacturer in 1916, the company assumed the name Bayerische Motoren Werke and became known for its high-speed motorcycles in the 1920s. and fancy driving skills to make deliveries. He has three rules: 1) Don't change the agreement. 2) No names. 3) And never look in the package. Those simple maxims have afforded Frank a nice, comfortable life in the south of France South of France south n the South of France → le Sud de la France, le Midi . Of course, any time a movie features a man with ironclad ironclad, mid-19th-century wooden warship protected from gunfire by iron armor. The success of the ironclad when first employed by the French in the Crimean War sparked a naval armor and armaments race between France and Great Britain. rules, you know it's only a matter of time before he breaks one of them. For Frank, this happens when he unzips a writhing garment bag in his trunk and finds a babe (Shu Qi
Shu Qi (Chinese: 舒淇; Pinyin: Shū Qí ). The moment he removes the duct tape duct tape n. A usually silver adhesive tape made of cloth mesh coated with a waterproof material, originally designed for sealing heating and air-conditioning ducts. Noun 1. from her mouth, Frank's orderly life disappears and all hell breaks loose. (I'm sure there's a subliminal message A subliminal message is a signal or message embedded in another object, designed to pass below the normal limits of perception. These messages are indiscernible by the conscious mind, but allegedly affect the subconscious or deeper mind. in there somewhere, guys. Far be it from me to add comment.) What follows is a series of explosions, car chases and martial-arts tomfoolery that's generally well-executed by Hong Kong Hong Kong (hŏng kŏng), Mandarin Xianggang, special administrative region of China, formerly a British crown colony (2005 est. pop. 6,899,000), land area 422 sq mi (1,092 sq km), adjacent to Guangdong prov. director Cory Yuen, who makes excellent use of Stratham's steely-eyed stillness and a great Euro-funk score from Stanley Clarke. If the movie is unable to live up to its brilliant opening half, it's in large part because writers Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen don't provide Frank with an adversary worthy of his talents. You can't complain too much, though, since ``The Transporter'' does give us an action hero worth talking about. Bring on the sequel. THE TRANSPORTER - Three stars (PG-13: violence, some sensuality) Starring: Jason Stratham, Shu Qi. Director: Cory Yuen. Running time :1 hr. 32 min. Playing: Wide release. In a nutshell: The movie that ``XXX'' wanted to be. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Jason Stratham and Shu Qi skip the gag and go straight to the action in ``The Transporter.'' |
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