The Transporter 2 (2005)
Directed by: Louis Leterrier
Premise: Jason Statham reprises his role as Frank Martin. In this film he attempts to rescue a boy who has been kidnapped by a villain (Alessandro Gassman) with a mysterious agenda.
What Works: Statham is a competent actor and does the best he can with the material. His martial arts skills are very impressive and he has some nice moments with Amber Valletta, who plays the mother of the kidnapped child.
What Doesn’t: The rest of the picture is a disaster. Although not a brilliant film, the original Transporter had a character arc and an attitude that made it fun and a sort of guilty pleasure. This film throws out the little bit of dramatic substance of the original and tries to fill the space with action. Unfortunately, the action sequences in this film are not very good and are sub par for the genre. The editing is not very good and the scenes have very little rise and fall of emotion. When a sequence begins it has no apparent cause and when it ends there is no narrative effect. The villains are really pathetic, especially Katie Nauta, who spends the entire film in a bikini, licking her lips, sneering incredibly bad dialogue, and shooting two oversize hand guns at close range but never hitting anything.
Bottom Line: Transporter 2 is one of those sequels that really begs the question, why? The ending of the original did not lead anywhere and this film does not attempt to solve that problem. It’s a waste of a film and a talented actor.
Episode: #66 (September 4, 2005)