While THE TRANSPORTER was a fun little action movie, going through the moves and delivering some very stable action sequences, it didn't really provide much out of the ordinary; aside from the oil fight, there was little that the average action fan had seen before. Things change in TRANSPORTER 2, an impossibly slick, overblown and often silly action flick that resembles a James Bond film on acid. Bald-headed Jason Statham is back as the gravel-voiced, smooth-as-heck driver, and delivers his own inimitable brand of martial arts hijinks, just as in the first film. Once more there are a bunch of assorted-race bad guys, who have some dumb idea to take over the world or hold it to ransom; the only person here worth mentioning is Jason Flemyng, who tears up the scenery as a stressed-out Russian gangster.
TRANSPORTER 2 seems to contain non-stop action, moreso than any other film I can think of at the moment. There are lots of outrageous chase scenes, such as a speedboat chasing a school bus, and clichéd-but-fun fist-fights in which Statham takes on numerous bad guys one at a time, armed with a hose, amongst other things. This is a noticeably violent film that pushes at its PG-13 all the way through; it's far tougher and bloodier than the first, and is all the better for it. It's just a shame that some of the CGI-laden stunts are so dumb; for instance, I hated the bomb-disposal-by-crane moment, which pushes stupidity to new tepid levels. For the most part, though, TRANSPORTER 2 is slick but somehow old-fashioned, offering the kind of turn-your-brain-off action thrills we've rarely seen since their heyday in the 1980s. A witty script and lotsa violence and stunts make for a winning combination that surpasses the original's formula.
TRANSPORTER 2 seems to contain non-stop action, moreso than any other film I can think of at the moment. There are lots of outrageous chase scenes, such as a speedboat chasing a school bus, and clichéd-but-fun fist-fights in which Statham takes on numerous bad guys one at a time, armed with a hose, amongst other things. This is a noticeably violent film that pushes at its PG-13 all the way through; it's far tougher and bloodier than the first, and is all the better for it. It's just a shame that some of the CGI-laden stunts are so dumb; for instance, I hated the bomb-disposal-by-crane moment, which pushes stupidity to new tepid levels. For the most part, though, TRANSPORTER 2 is slick but somehow old-fashioned, offering the kind of turn-your-brain-off action thrills we've rarely seen since their heyday in the 1980s. A witty script and lotsa violence and stunts make for a winning combination that surpasses the original's formula.