Transporter 2 DVD: Review By kaismith

Although it follows in the tradition of inadequate sequels, The Transporter 2 serves its purpose as a simple-minded action flick.

Ex-Special Forces, Frank Martin (Jason Statham) a.k.a. "The Transporter," comes back with a new tricked out car, an Audi 8, which he straddles two buildings with and more. The set up is that Frank is a chauffer to the wealthy Billings family in Miami. When the son, Jack Billings (Hunter Clary), who Frank has bonded with, is abducted, Frank uses his wit and his martial arts skills to save him and foil the kidnapper's plans, which are to kill politicians with an air born virus. Everything is pretty predictable as you watch; this was a grave disappointment since I actually enjoyed its predecessor. It was action packed (which the sequel is) and had a more developed plot. Unfortunately, the sequel fails in comparison.

In The Transporter, the action and storyline balanced each other out, but in The Transporter 2, the action over shadows the plot completely. Although I enjoyed when Frank chased a villain on a jet ski, jumped from the water to the street and some how was able to keep up with the bus long enough to jump on from the jet ski to the bus, and when Frank jumped high enough into the air for two cars to collide head on with out hitting him was awesome, but I draw the line at when he drives his car up a ramp, catapults the car into a 360 mid-air; then with perfectly timing scrapes the bottom of the car on a crane hook where the bomb is to detach it and lands safely on the ground. Scenes like that are obviously not plausible. Moreover, they took away the human quality of character in the original film. The sequel's Frank has somewhat superhuman abilities where as the original's Frank was a human that has super skills. The sequel's Frank is much harder to identify with.

Yes, the special effects do look great and there are more explosions, crashes, racing, and fights, but screen writers, Luc Besson's and Robert Mark Kamen's writing is lacking in this film. Besson wrote the original The Transporter and The Fifth Element with Robert Mark Kamen and other great action flicks like, Point of No Return and The Professional. What happened? The dialogue is mainly surface level.

The scene where Frank takes on 6 guys with an industrial water hose was no where near the scene where he whoops 10 guys on an oil slick floor in the original. Come on, the man used bike pedals to kick butt. That was just genius! The choreography was much more sophisticated in the bike pedal scene than the water hose one. It's pretty obvious that the bulk of the budget for this film was spent on the special effects. The characters are one dimensional. Statham, who was awesome in Snatch and the original The Transporter, should have passed on this sequel like Keanu Reeves did with Speed 2. This role certainly isn't his greatest.

I must add that I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Statham's naked upper body in the first as I did in the second (*Wink**Wink* you know what I am talking about ladies), but the coincidence of rain pouring when he strips his shirt off exposing his bare chest is a little much. Aside from that this film is very sexy. Kate Nauta, who plays Lola, is a former model turn actress who makes her debut in this film and serves her purpose as the sexy assassin. She pulls off those Victoria's Secrets bra, panties, and guarder belts fairly well (I know I can't wear them that well). As an extra added bonus for the men, she is pretty much half nude through out the entire film (If that helps your purchase of the DVD, well more power to you). But like all of the other characters she is one dimensional and her fight scene with Statham is extremely disappointing. Due to the build up, I expected more.

Deleted and Extended Scenes - Blooper Reel

There are lots of deleted scenes, but what is mostly cut out is the gore and blood, which sometimes is needed. These scenes weren't necessary in the film anyway.

As for the rest of the featurettes, the box says there are "Making of Transporter 2" Featurette and "Making of Music" Featurette, but my copy did not have that. Too bad, I was really looking forward to them.

Widescreen Anamorphic 2:35:1 and Full Screen 1:33:1 version. It's evident that a bit of money was invested in special effects as I mentioned before and they do add to the film and although some are not plausible, they look great! Besson's film making style is always visually pleasing and the editing is tight. The Transporter 2 is no exception.

Dolby Digital Surround Sound. English, Spanish and French subtitles. I know I keep comparing this film to the original, but it is what I do. So please bear with me as I make another comparison with the music. The music in this isn't as good as the original. This soundtrack is filler music with no words and most of it has a fast fighting tempo. There isn't much variety.

On the front cover, in the upper right corner, Statham is frozen mid air with two guns in his hand and just above his leg to the left is Nauta in all her runny mascara glory sporting the same pose just in the opposite direction. The title runs in the middle of the DVD with a line of fire behind it and Nauta. On the back are scene stills, a plot synopsis and special features list.

The first definitely wasn't a piece of art, but the quality and craftsmanship of the acting, writing, and direction was there. The original also served its purpose as an action film, but with a plot moderately sophisticated, The Transporter 2 is just over the top. If you are looking for a movie that won't challenge you and provides all of all completely far-fetched action scenes you can get in 88 minutes and a sexy former model clutching two big guns and walking around in underwear and stripper heels, then check out The Transporter 2. If you are looking for something a little more sophisticated, pass on this one.