Ex-military Frank (Statham) lives in a swank if
lonely house in the south of France. He is a “transporter”;
he delivers packages for big bucks -- no questions
asked. He is cool, calm and has his own set of
rules: no names, never open the package, don’t
change the deal, etc. On one such delivery though,
he does open the package. Out pops a beautiful
Chinese girl, Lai, (Shu Qi)…and well, then
nothing happens.
Later, things get more heated: Frank makes the
delivery, agrees to transport a second package,
that package turns out to the a bomb, bomb goes
boom, Frank gets pissed, Frank wups some ass…do
I really need to go on? The plot loosely involves
the smuggling of human cargo from China, and the
rush to get the people out of the container is
the main focus behind Frank’s hunt for the
baddies who are transporting them.
Corey Yuen’s first foray into a Hollywood
directing gig (he has worked as a martial arts
director on several films in the U.S., including
THE ONE and LETHAL WEAPON 4, and has directed
countless HK films such as MY FATHER IS A HERO
with Jet Li) suffers from a script full of holes
and unbelievable character motivation. When Frank
and Lai finally hook up, her reason for making
love to him is to basically compensate for his
house and car being blown to smithereens. Why
Lai is being transported is never fully explained,
nor is the bomb Frank is given upon her delivery.
The dialogue plays upon our inner-sap, like so
many HK films do, and that is not only painful
to hear but totally unnecessary in this sort of
flick.
The action in the film rocks with one exception:
the final sequence. A finale in a film such as
this should be both exciting and original. Watching
retreads of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK doesn’t
count. Statham does prove, however, to be a fitting
action hero: he can fight AND look good in both
a suit and shirtless. Damn, the dude makes Vin
Diesel look fat. All oiled up in, well, oil, he
spins and kicks and knocks the crap out of countless
dudes. Now he just needs a decent script.
 
Jason Statham
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