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EXCELLENT

As often is the case this, the first of the 3 in the series to date, is by far the best!

A Heaping Pile of Garbage

I watched this movie because there was absolutely nothing else on TV, but if I can help just 1 other person from wasting their time as I did...If you re-create every action scene you have ever seen (ala James Bond, Terminator, Die Hard), splice them together in no particular order, develop a plot more brainless than a Steven Seagal flick (not easy), you will have The Transporter.The only plus -- that oriental chick was pretty cute.If you like cars that explode like nuclear bombs when they crash, and villains that have super high tech military weapons 1 minute -- then mysteriously lose them just before the obligatory martial arts fight scene -- then this movie is for you.

jason pretty much is the movie

and it succeeds solely because of him. jason stratham is probably one of the most likeable action heroes to come along in years and he appears in this one enough to make it enjoyable. this film has plenty of action. in one scene, he takes on a group of thugs on a train and pretty much wipes them out and later proves his dexterity by taking out some bad guys while moving around efforlessly on a grease-stained...Qi Shu provides some cool eye candy...all action movies should be this fun

Good action flick

The opening third of the flick is by far the best part. Frank Martin lives by his three rules: never alter the deal, no names, never open the package. Up until he breaks one of his rules the movie is an interesting look at a man who lives by his own terms in an extremely violent and dangerous portion of the world. Unfortunately after he finds the girl the movie breaks down into a series of cliches and explosions that are less interesting. The girl in particular, Qi Shu, is not a terribly good actress and is better as eye candy than whenever she speaks. In fairness it's probably her first English language movie. Still it's a solid action flick with a lot of high-powered stunts and a winning performance by Jason Statham in the lead, though one wonders what sort of movie would have resulted had Frank just closed the trunk again.

The Transporter: 6/10

Car chases are about the coolest stunt in an action movie. To my latest count, The Transporter had three.Frank (Jason Statham) is a transporter: he delievers packages from one bad guy to the next, no questions asked. Or he may even carry passangers, as seen from the first scene. But when he opens a package that seems to be moving and screaming, things start to turn to the worse. Soon everybody is trailing Frank and trying to kill him. Just an ordiniary day in the life of a transporter.The opening car chase scene is the coolest one I've ever seen in movies. Sure it's unlikely (nay...impossible), but this movie isn't about what can happen in real life. The subsequent chases pale in comparision, but are still pretty cool.The plot, however, is anything but cool. In the first half, the plot was the consequence of opening the package. In the second half, it's about 400 Asian immigrants and the girl (Qi Shu) from the package's father working for the bad guy. Or something like that. Action movies like this are supposed to have you not really think about anything except for basic plot and explosions (like the one at the rest stop...awesome!), but you had to follow the plot or else you wouldn't understand what was happening.The best non-car-chase fight sequence was in the bus station. Buses...$35,000. Fighting ten guys on an oiled floor...priceless. At some times, Statham's moves seemed like he was break-dancing. Speaking of Statham, he could be the next action hero. With his Bond-like stunts and his Diesel-like build, move over Brosnan! There's a new hero in town.Shu was good as a girl with tape over her mouth, but she soon became an obnoxious person who wasn't fun to be with. Shu, and almost everyone else in the movie, had accents that were hard to understand a lot of times. If they learned anything from The Osbournes, it is that they can put subtitles in English-it'll help!The music was right on-key, helping tense the situation and then relax us, and then tense us up again. In the beginning, the sound FX really helped to bring out the quality of the sound. Music can be obnoxious if used in the wrong places, but in some places, like The Transporter, it helps bring out the mood.The bad guys, on the con side of the film, were so one-dimensional that they must have aced Stupid Bad Guys 101. On the test: Question 1: True or False: When the person you're supposed to kill disappears, just assume that he died. They must of tried to kill him and "succeeded" three times. What a load of idiots. And some of the film was so utterly unbelieveable. Statham just knows how to scuba-dive, parachute, has a giant house with an underwater passage to another house connected to it and has a million Mercedeses. Right...Well, enough of my mumbo-jumbo. If you just skipped down here to have me cut to the chase, here it is: Fun, mucho action, and some awesome chases counter against one-dimensional bad guys and horrible plot. I'm not sure if I recommend it or not, I guess just see it for yourself to figure it out.My rating: 6/10Rated PG-13 for strong action violence and some language.

transported down the toilet!

Good grief, what a wretched movie. The first scene, though a touch over-the-top, was pretty good with the car escape from the bank job. And that was it. The movie then deteriorated into a kind of pretentious version of 70's/80's martial arts film. The improved film quality and more expansive cinematography only made the action sequences seem more goofy. At least with the old kung fu movies you knew what to expect: low quality filming with silent film era special effects, but with blazing fight sequences. Transporter was a joke....the british actor seemed slow and awkward by comparison, his opponents politely positioning themselves to take their licks. I confess, I got sucked in by Luc Besson's name....I initially thought he directed it. What the hell is happening to him??! After Fifth Element, he kind of lost it. Messenger seemed to signify some kind of psychotic break, and now writing credits for this?! Not good. I may skip his next endeavour and put him on rental probation. Frankly, I felt embarrassed for those who gave Transporter good marks....I think I remember an exclamation of "Excellent!" within a couple posts. I'm at a loss....how does one perceive in such a way? Anyway, each to his own. If anyone wants to get the most out of this film, buy a ticket to some other movie starting 15 minutes later and then sneak into Tranporter and watch the initial car chase...then go see the better movie. Better yet, watch a trailer and call it quits. If my memory serves, the previews contained the only worthwhile scenes of the whole reel. 3 out of 10 stars.

Great fighting scenes, so-so story

I bought this movie out of curiousity. It had an intriguing cover and I liked the guy in Lock, Stock and Loaded Barrel and Snatch. So I decided to give it a try. The premise is actually interesting. The whole rules thing is interesting as well. I can't say it was a bad story as so much as it was kind of boring. The story kind made you want to see the next fight scene, which kept coming.

On the fighting, the movie scores an A+. The fighting makes the movie worth seeing. I'd say the fight scenes are just a notch below The Matrix in excitement but in my book The Matrix is the gold standard of fight scenes. Which means that they're pretty damn good.

The ending is pretty anti-climactic and ho-hum. It's a good movie but not one I'd watch over and over again (my standard for judging movies).

Action Packed

If you enjoy good action then you need to check this movie out. Jason Stratham plays Frank Martin, a transporter for hire specializing in safely getting items from point A to point B.... for a hefy price of course. His life is pretty good until he violates one of his most important rules and then gets caught up in a scheme with enough action to keep you on the edge of your seats for most of the movie.

If you enjoy movies with great acting and a sound-proof plot, then this is not your movie. Jason Stratham does okay. The most entertaining person in the film, in my opinion, is Francois Berleand who plays a French detective (and he does an even better job in the second movie).

Worth checking out for action buffs but not the best your money can buy.

The new definition of "cool movie"

Sure there's lots of action movies, and it certainly does seem the stunts in them get more and more ridiculous each year. But every once in awhile a movie like this one can make you enjoy watching one man miraculously defeat twenty or thirty enemies at once, all the while dodging punches, kicks, and 50,000 rounds of bullets. So how does The Transporter pull this off? Three simple things: great style, a cast of main characters with incredible talent, and of course the awesome chase scenes and fight sequences...plus a good tongue-in-cheek attitude about it all.Simply put, if you've been looking for a great action film for awhile, this is definitely the medicine you need.

Top Notch Stunts

I agree this movie is the equivalent of fast food-quick satisfying and fulfilling but nothing to last substance wise. A little more input could have been developed between Jason and his "Package" but it's okay how they quickly built it up. What does last is the out of this world action scenes.
A leadfoot like me did not need to see what new tricks to do with a stick shift. And is it just me or is all these new actions flicks in Europe such as XXX, Bourne Identity and Transporter all of the driving is on the driver left side and the right side of the road like America. This some type of common glitch from American directors or do they really switch what side of the road they drive on? Very confusing.

Surprising

I really enjoyed this movie on the first viewing, but found myself reaching for the fast-forward button on subsequent viewings.I was REALLY surprised with Jason Statham's acting - he was good in Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels but was part of a larger ensemble. In this, he was the lead and tougher and way more cool and the fact that he did 99% of the stunts himself was impressive.Personally, I would have liked to have seen much more actual "transporting" though, so we could enjoy more of the driving scenes. The ones we do see were cool, unbelievable, but enjoyable ! The soundtrack was good and Qi was an attractive choice - not sure why they needed to pass her off as Japanese though ?! For those who like action movies, with scant disregard for reality, this is an entertaining flick.

One underrated movie

I must admit that I agree with some of the other reviewers in saying that Jason Statham bassically is the film. Of course the story isn't really all that impressive but the idea of a transporter that is a ex special forces man and he just can't stay away from trouble is genious. To sum it all up this movie is really all about amazing car chases and fantastic fight scenes and they chose the perfect man to execute both. Even though some of these scenes look a bit unrealistic the rest of them are perfect. The only problem i have with the film is the camera work. You can hardley see some of the fights because of bad angles but other than that the movie is an action packed work of art.

no way !

Wow, what a terrible crash to behold...
Honest - I was looking forward to this (shame on me, I know ) on the grounds that anything in the action genre produced by Luc Besson (as witnessed by "Kiss of the Dragon" and not-so-bad "Taxi" ) and featuring John Statham (of "Snatch" fame) could not be all bad.... Big mistake !!!
After an admittedly cool introductory chase this is a straight and steep downhill deploying movie (Hint - leave right after it and do something else. It will save the evening !). Most treestumps have more distinguishable and varied facial expression than Mr.Statham flashes at the audience in this movie, the villains are utterly faceless styrofoam cutouts, the "plot" has holes in it the size of parking lots and some of the surprises are so hare-brained ( I mean, what villain has a packaged and primed timed-explosive-device ready for deployment, while frolicking in his gardens, just in case he needs to blow some unlucky courier to pieces if the whim takes him ? Sure.......all of them ! No comment on the Scuba-gear scene... ), I find myself mystified who would ever want screen-credits for writing it ! Even the obligatory "rousing" fight scenes are stupid, uninspired or even cool ( most baffling to me). Not even redeeming wit or self-effacing irony dare pop up... laughs crawl in by accident, only.One of the movies that give the action-genre in general a bad name - sorry. If it wasn't for for the nice scenery and the beautiful Qi Shu ( as "Lai" - but you can buy a bunch of posters for the price of admittance) this would be a total bomb - this way it gets 1.5/5 flat tires...

* *1/2 out of 4.

Transporter (Jason Strathan) is hired to deliver a package for a mobster, but throws one of his own rules out the window by looking in the package and discovering a bound and gagged young woman (Qi Shu), which puts his life in great danger. I have such mixed feelings about this movie. Some of the acting by the supporting actors is rather bad on the other hand though, Jason Strathan has a very natural and commanding presence on screen and makes an interesting choice for an action hero. Qi Shu has a very thick accent and her English isn't very good, but she delivers a very impassioned (and probably better then this film deserves) performance. The cinematography is striking and the direction things moving along nicely. The action scenes are excellent.

Fast action and paper thin characters...

There are certain action movie premises that never go away despite the fact that they always produce movies that are clones of countless unimpressive action movies that came before. The kidnapped child, the raped and murdered wife, the otherwise wronged family, or in this case, the crusade against corrupt businessmen, smugglers, drug dealers, etc. Take your pick, they generally all turn out about the same, don't they?Jason Statham is inarguably today's fastest rising action star. He blasted onto the scene with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (a smashing action movie despite what I can't get over thinking is just the goofiest title) and soon followed it up with other action movies like Crank and Snatch which are absolutely overflowing with awesomeness. The Transporter movies are great vehicles for Statham, although this one was hardly an impressive first outing. It starts out great, with four guys scrambling madly out of a bank they've just robbed and jumping into his car, where he calmly sits motionless and informs them that there are four of them but the deal was three and then proceeds to list off all the reasons why four guys just won't do, including that it throws off the weight calibration of his suspension and will exceed the amount of gas that he has allotted for this particular delivery. The situation is, ah, resolved, and he puts the pedal down and leads the French police on an exaggerated high speed chase through the streets and alleyways of Marseilles that is so overblown that it promises to become one of those movies like Wanted or Shoot 'Em Up that are soaked in every excess imaginable but are nevertheless tons of fun.And for a lot of the movie that's what we get, but unfortunately its also populated with paper thin characters and cartoonish villains involved in a preposterous human smuggling plot. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Statham is, as the title informs us, a Transporter by trade. He makes his living by delivering things without asking questions and commands a conspicuously massive salary. The shadiness of his clients is to be expected, hence his insistence on never giving his or learning their names. He has three rules about his services – I forget the order, but they involve never changing the deal in any way once an agreement has been made (hence the tense confusion at the beginning of the movie), never giving names, and never looking in the package being delivered. When you're dealing with the kind of people that he deals with, it's generally best not to really know much about what's really going on. Especially when you have a friendly but attentive police detective making occasional house calls to your beautiful beach house and wondering about things like getaways being made in cars exactly like yours and when that last car later gets found blown to pieces with two police officers in the trunk. If nothing else, the French seem pretty generous with the benefit of the doubt!But despite this string of good luck, he breaks one of his own rules on his latest delivery, accidentally buying an Orangina for the contents of his package and then letting her go off into the woods to pee. We never learn much about why he was asked to deliver this stunningly sexy Chinese girl in the first place, but it soon becomes clear that her family is involved in a massive smuggling operation involving smuggling bedraggled Chinese people out of China. Incidentally, I watched the movie last night in China with a bunch of my Chinese friends. They were not amused.The rest of the movie, unfortunately, is an exercise in Action Movie-making 101. It's flooded with action clichés and predictability, which is disappointing even though there wasn't really a time in the first half of the movie where it promised to be anything different. But the bigger problem than the clichés and the predictability are the sheer lack of thought put into the script and the senselessness of the entire premise itself. You see, the Chinese girl's father is currently smuggling "400 people in a container" through Marseilles. Is this for real? 400 people in a container the size of a semi trailer? Shipping through Marseilles? I had been under the impression that a container traveling from Hong Kong to, say, America takes something like 4-6 weeks. But to travel "through" Marseilles on its way to somewhere else? Such a trip would take months and I'm just going to go ahead and guess that roughly 0% of the cargo would make it through alive. I don't know much about the logistics of human smuggling, but I'm guessing that such a percentage would do some damage to your profit margins.But no matter. The evil criminal scheme behind the action is beside the point, it's little more than a catalyst to differentiate between the good guys and the bad guys and give them something to fight over. Jason Statham is cool as hell in the movie, but his costar may be a good Chinese actress (she's much more famous here than she is in America, so's you know), but she just can't act in English. She reminded me of the horrendous performance by the heroine in First Blood Part II. At the time of this writing I've seen half of The Transporter II, which immediately comes off as a much better movie than the original, which places it in the diminutive category of sequels that surpass their original movies. Statham fans and hardcore action fans may get a kick out of The Transporter, but behind the high class action gloss and Statham's star power it's a b-movie at heart.

Not bad for a cheapie

Actually, Claudio, it was a Japanese girl that Frank was transporting! But I guess, to a Brazilian, all orientals look the same!! For a low budget (I assume) movie, this isn't half bad - just as long as you don't take it too seriously. Jason Statham is every bit as good as the various Bond actors and, dare I suggest it, if his character had been named James Bond, this movie would be rated every bit as good as all those 007 movies. The action is unbelievable (let's face it, NO ONE could do what Frank (or JB) does but that doesn't matter. The film is made to entertain and that's what it does. If you want realism then this movie probably isn't for you but if you enjoy a nice break from the mundane, then go for it!

thin

If you like chase scenes, fight scenes, beefcake and the thinnest excuse for a storyline, this movie's for you!

Bash it for using cliches'??? Like it's the only one?

While people were wasting money on Vin Diesel's XXX, I was waiting for this... Jason Statham's finest hour... a script that Luc Besson personally wrote for him. And it fits him like a glove... I guess that brush with action in The One just got him going. He's smooth, suave, and tough... and he has strict rules you never break... so obviously all the trouble comes from breaking the rules.

Filled with cool fights, action, and style, XXX has NOTHING on this movie. Buy it.

Vin Diesel can kiss my ass – this film is weak but at least it is FUN to watch

Frank Martin is a transporter – a man who drives and delivers on behalf of criminals. On one job he opens his `package' to find a young woman, Lai Kwai. Despite this he completes the job and picks up another package from his customer, Wall Street. On a break from driving his `package' then explodes. He returns to his client and steals a car, unwittingly taking the girl with him. Martin then finds himself the target of this gang and is put in a position where he must do the right thing.I'm not really a big action fan and the last few things I watched were disappointing, not living up to the hype. XXX was a major let down for me.
However the Transporter seemed to offer low-key action without a big Hollywood marketing campaign behind it. First of all let me deal with the plot – it is nonsense from start to finish! The film sets up Martin as a real pro in the exciting opening scene – but then expects us to accept that he opens the package and lets the girl escape scenes later, it just doesn't wash for me. The rest of the plot sort of falls into place heavily and, when it needs to explain things, feels very slow and ponderous – it's better if you don't think about it.Despite the weak plot the film is very enjoyable simply because of the great action scenes. They are a mix of well choreographed fights and OTT action.
The OTT action is a little much but is enjoyable none the less (and doesn't look that OTT beside the excesses of XXX). The fight scenes are very cool and Statham is very physical, doing some very cool moves. It's these martial arts scenes that really make the film. The soundtrack is pumping hip-hop. It isn't great music but the pumping nature of the music fits well with the onscreen action most of the time.Statham is really good and is much tougher than Vin Diesel was. Physically he is very impressive and he can really move when he wants to. His cool, professional look is really good and had me hooked from the first scene. Qi Shu is OK in the support and is quite playful, while Schulze is a standard bad guy.Overall this is the perfect film for a Saturday night. It isn't great, the plot is weak and the ending is a little bit of an anti-climax with it's happy sunny ending, but the action is good and, more than some over hyped films, it is actually FUN to watch it – just don't expect all the bits to be good.

Pleasantly surprised...great action flick

I made the mistake of reading some of the user comments before I saw the movie so I wasn't expecting much, maybe an action opening, then go downhill from there. I rented it on the strength of Luc Besson's name (he wrote and co-produced). And I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. It has humor, action, love, and twists and turns in the plot. I love the exchanges between the inspector and Frank. The inspector is no dummy. Yes, the girl is a bit annoying but I think she's supposed to be. You weren't sure at first if she was being sold as a sex slave (my first thought) or if she was being kidnapped for ransom. The action sequences were spectacular...high budget for this one. I've never seen an opening chase scene quite like this one. Overall, I'd give it an 8 out of 10...worth renting.