Wednesday, October 26, 2005

The Transporter 2 Review


Straight to the point, this movie is pretty cool, but in order to enjoy it the way its meant to be, you have to leave and forget all logic outside the theater, or imagine the movie is set in a different universe altogether running in parallel to our's. Believe me this movie brings the term 'over the top' to new heights.

In this parallel-world Miami, physics in non-existant. The main character, Frank 'The Driver' Martin, can do (a LOT of) ridiculous stunts, some of which are quite impressive to watch, while the others borders on annoying.. Frank (Jason Statham) is a natural butt-kicker, fending off attacking foes without pity. In one scene, he is surrounded by enemies (all holding weapons, while he is bare-handed), but he effortlessly swats them all away with minimum fuss (kinda like Neo thrashing all the Smiths in Reloaded). What is he, superman?? OK fine, the fact that hes an ex-Special Forces agent might make that a wee bit more believable, but where in the world did he learn the art of DODGING bullets with ease??

The driving scenes are equally overdone. Unrealistic manouvers(impossible to do in the real world), silly blurry effects, its all there. Apparently cops in Miami are all incompetent drivers, unable to avoid(or even minimise) crashes. Around mid-way through the movie, Frank pulls a crazy stunt with his A8. Tho it looks cool, nobody in the right mind would think it could happen in the real world. Even if physics allow that trick(which it obviously doesnt), not even the most trained daredevil can judge or even predict the car's trajectory as accurately as Frank did.


One can be forgiven for thinking its a 90-minute commercial thinly disguised as a movie, because in a way, it sorta is! The whole opening sequence was about showing off the Audi A8 W12, with the camera panning almost 360degrees around the car to show the tiniest detail. Personally I dont mind it, coz it is a beautiful car, by far the best looking high-end luxury car out there. If that was it, it would have been fine, but NO, they just dont know when to stop. In Frank's fridge theres three bottles of Heineken beer, all lined up and angled precisely to give the audience full view of the bottles' labels. Furthermore, virtually every character in the movie uses Nokia phones. Flip down the Audi's glovebox, three Nokia phones come to view. Is this overkill or what??

The acting is only so-so. Jason Statham really needs to attend acting classes to show proper emotions. Kate Nauta(plays Lola), while sexy, appears wooden. On the other hand, Amber Valletta(Allegra Cole from Hitch) was pretty decent playing a stressed mother.

But ultimately, the great action and driving scenes are enough to make the trip to the cinemas worthwhile. Not great, but not that bad either. Just keep in mind, forget logic and physics while watching it, and enjoy a decent action-flick.. All the thinking can come later.

My Verdict - 7 out of 10

4 Comments:

Blogger @řũn said...

I don't think I would like this movie. How to forget about physics??

And i don't think the car's path was a trajectory :P That's only for projectiles right? Hehe and it can't have been a projectile because there was air resistance :P

See!! I can't forget physics :(

7:33 PM, October 26, 2005  
Blogger Le Hong said...

The car thing is copy James Bond

8:26 PM, October 26, 2005  
Blogger Unknown said...

For Doom I took a bit from IMDB, others i wrote myself..

5:36 AM, October 28, 2005  
Blogger FuKhate said...

yauchuan, hafriz wanna be a part time columnist doing movie reviews after getting his phd in gynaecology. So we should support him ;P

2:39 AM, October 29, 2005  

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