The Transporter, opening nationwide today.

ED: Luc Besson delivers a Sino-French action movie, heavy on the fights and light on dialogue--perfect end-of-summer movie to catch during a heat wave. Starring a Brit and set in Monaco and the hills to Nice, it's visually beautiful (well, it is) and gives you a new appreciation for exactly how exact driving can be. I enjoyed it, but since I love almost any action movie, consider the bias.

EM: Where to begin? It's been so long... Luc Besson, well known for his marriage to Leeloo (er, Milla Jovavich) and frenetic film style in The Fifth Element and La Femme Nikita, returns to writing a genre he knows intimately--the Action Film. The difference between the Taiwanese and European style of action movie seems to lie in the language; otherwise, it's a tried-and-true formula that delivers solid results. This film seems to be both since it features a Chinese bad guy and has monosyllabic and/or cheesy dialogue between characters with a LOT of action thrown in. Directed by Corey Yuen (a collaborator of Jet Li's) and written with Robert Kamen's help (he of Gladiator and Kiss of the Dragon fame), Besson creates a tight and quick-paced 90 minutes of fun. Honestly--when's the last time you saw someone drive a 1999 BMW 735 like it was a Kompressor? That's what I thought.

Our story concerns Frank (or Franque, depending on who's speaking), a British ex-special forces guy who now supplements his pension with 'transporting' things for people. He's got a few rules to help this run smoothly: no deviation from the deal, no names, and don't look inside/at the package. Not too surprisingly, all three happen in quick succession to drive the plot. Since we can't have a martial-arts movie without a girl, there's the token girly-girl (Asian this time) and annoying as hell. Why do they not understand that when the big menacing man says 'shut up', that means SHUT UP or face certain dismemberment or death! Not too surprisingly, she's a key factor to the way things turn out in the movie, so she's in the whole thing. So: bad guys lose, good guys triumph, and if he's lucky he'll get rid of the girl.

'He' would be Jason Statham of Lock Stock and Snatch fame, as well as being recently seen as Monk in The Longest Yard remake "Mean Machine". He pretty much looks and acts the half-brother of John McClane (a specific Bruce Willis) and Vin Diesel. He's got the physique, squint, and monosyllabism of Vin, but the attitude, experience, and world-weariness of McClane. It's hard not to like this guy, especially when you see all the trouble that comes from him just doing his job and trying to stay alive. He's opposed by the very familiar Matt Schlutze, from Fast/Furious and the Blade movies. Schlutze's in cahoots with those darn Chinese businessmen, and the henchmen all fight their respective ethnic style. The entire movie is very much martial-arts based, but it's got an immediate street sense instead of the fantastic feats that come out of Jet Li or that crazy Jackie Chan. (Off-topic: he's got another few movies coming out. That man has a death wish.) The action scenes are amazing in their pacing, editing, and direction; this may be because the fight choreographer is also the director and I'm sure he knows how to shoot a fight to its advantage! The soundtrack is full of house and trip-hop, intensifying the action; the crazier the moment, the more chill the song becomes. I'm sure it's to signify the calm that Statham exudes even in the tense situations--having everything under control, etc--but I just thought it was great music and very well done. Following the trend in movies these days, the film also has a social/moral message. Don't worry--you'll catch it. It's hard not to, being the secondary plot and all. One thing I noticed is that our special-ops trained hero doesn't seem to try to kill people, just incapacitate them. Intentional? We'll never know.