Transporter 2 with Jason StathamIf you haven’t seen the first Transporter, go back and watch it!  Then prepare yourself for the second installment, not surprisingly named Transporter 2!

Frank Martin (Jason Statham) is back in the United States, filling in for a friend and ‘transporting’ the child of a wealthy but separated couple.  When the child is taken to get a routine shot, some strange characters attempt to inject the boy with a powerful virus.  Instead Frank prevents this from happening, bashes the men and saves the boy.

Before arriving home, he is intercepted by a woman and a man on the phone, they then convince Frank to take the boy to them otherwise he will be shot dead by a sniper.

One crazy woman - Transporter 2

After promising to keep the boy safe, Frank takes the boy in and from there does everything he can get him back.  But when the boy finally returns, Frank learns the truth about the plan – to infect the boys father with the virus.  A virus that will spread through the air and kill some of the world’s leaders in law enforcement whilst at a meeting – in order to thrive and sell drugs on the open market.

Frank then snaps into action to save these men and bring down the criminal behind the scenes.

This time, Frank doesn’t break the rules.

Frank tells the young boy he’s transporting that he promises not to let any one hurt him.  So when all of the events unfold at the beginning of the movie, Frank’s driven by this promise.

One of Frank’s rules – never make a promise you can’t keep, becomes a bit of Mantra behind the motivation of his character.

I find it surprising that he’s gone a bit more ‘family friendly’ in a way, acting as a middle man between the victims and criminals, trying to do what’s right as opposed to surviving and getting even (as in the first film).  But the premise seems to work well enough, as the action is the real indicator for quality in this movie.

The Action

Everything is cranked up a notch.

Frank ends up in high speed chases doing some fancy moves as in the first film before gong to a whole new, completely ridiculous level that drags the overall quality of the movie down a star or two.

He manages to disarm a bomb on his car by driving up a ramp, flipping it sideways and catching it on a hook before landing successfully on all four wheels.  Not to mention driving off the top of a building and landing quite neatly within another.

Frank Martin kicks some ass

The action of this film goes to stupid heights in an attempt to be ‘bigger and better’, when it really just ends up being a little ‘try-hardish’.  Even the fight at the very end on the aeroplane is a little ridiculous, right after the corker of a one liner “I’ll blow you into tomorrow” – excuse the french, but what do you call that shit?

Luckily this movie has one saving grace which makes it wickedly entertaining – the martial arts.

The Martial Arts

Jason Statham moves faster, slicker and better than before in his fights scenes, with the only weakness (in comparison to the first movie) being that the fights were a little short.

Ultimately Jason’s character Frank is doing more, performing more athletic stunts, and putting together such flowing and mixed fights that are just geniously going from one movement to another with a level of variety and smoothness which is fantastic to watch.

The fights are inventive and intelligently thought out.  The best example of this thought process is the scene where Jason ties up a group of opponents with a fire hose, before turning it one throwing them around the room.

The Verdict?

A lesser film than the first across the board, the down to Earth nature of the original film is gone, and the overall quality seems ‘cheap’ in comparison.  The fights are what make this movie good though, and the reason I’m glad to have it sitting on my shelf.  After all that’s why I watched in the first place.  Because of the fights, it gets my thumbs up!

On Blu Ray –

Region A (US & Canada)
Transporter 2 [Blu-ray]

Region B (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Europe etc)
Transporter 2 [Blu-ray]

On DVD –

Region 1 (US & Canada)
Transporter 2 on DVD

Region 2 (UK, Europe, etc)
Transporter 2 [DVD]

Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, etc)
Transporter 2 on DVD 

More info on Movie Regions here.

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