The Transporter 2

Rating: B-

I was a huge fan of the first Transporter. I loved the way it was shot, the fighting sequences, and of course, my girlfriend at the time's huge crush, Jason Statham. I was very excited to see that there was a sequel coming out, so I was right in line to see it.

This is a sequel in the most sense of the word. Take the first movie, make it bigger, more explosions, more action, different, more flashy location, and hopefully something good will come out of it. Most of the time, this is a bad thing, and in this case, sometimes it's bad, but sometimes it's very good.

Statham returns as Frank Martin, the man who transports with no questions and loads of rules, only now he's in Miami for some reason driving some kid around for a wealthy family. Frank has bonded with the kid, and when he's kidnapped, it's up to him to get him back, and get whoever is responsible.

There are quite a few spots where an extreme suspension of disbelief will come in very handy. Some of the driving stunts drew some groans, but the fight sequences were responded to with cheers. There is one particular fight that reminded me of a Jackie Chan movie, using all sorts of objects to get the job done. The French police guy is back this time, but his role has been dimished to basically Al Powell in Die Hard 2. Very disappointing.

Statham tries, but just can't carry a large movie on his own. He's a little stiff except when he's kicking someone's ass which is often. They've basically dropped the fact that he's a transporter and made a straight action movie instead, which was disappointing. Model Kate Nauta makes her film debut with tons of eye makeup and twin Glock 18's as the bad guy's main henchman, er woman.

The Transporter 2 had been made is very much the same vein as the early James Bond movies with out going too much over the top. It's not Oscar material, but not nearly as weak as most sequels that get this much hype usually are. It's worth a look, and you'll find yourself pressing the gas pedal down just a little more on the way home. Looking forward to the Transporter 3.