transporter 2

This week's DVD was Transporter 2.

I did one of these mini-reviews on the first Transporter and my basic opinion was summed up by my last line - "So yeah, silly, but an enjoyable kinda silly.".

So what about the sequel?

Well, the most important headline I guess is that I also enjoyed this one too. It's wasn't quite as silly as the first one, though it had a few silly bits, but still basically worked.

It also feels 'bigger'. It feels like they had a bit more money and that they wanted to expand the scope and scale a bit. It also feels a little less Besson-esque, although he is still credited as a Producer. In particular, the car chases don't have quite as much of that witty Besson touch, but they are more spectacular.

It's also set in Florida, rather than France, so the whole film has less of a fish a little out of his water feel that was noticeable in the first film.

There are quite a few interesting touches though. For example, this time it's a kid in peril, rather than a girl. Which isn't to say the film is without a female contingent, but being is it's the child's mother, this aspect plays out in an interesting way. I won't spoiler it, but lets' just say it plays out in a way that maintains Statham's hero status, but therefore doesn't conform to the usual action movie tropes.

Which isn't to say there aren't some problems with the film. Some of these are forgivable (the French police detective able to access a computer that surely would have had a password at the very least), but others are more glaring.

A good example is when the kid is found there's a bit where they literally just say "we've found the boy". How the hell they find him is totally unclear - there's no clue from the kidnappers or anything that would really give away his location.

Other examples would probably spoiler the story too much, but something I will mention is that in the film there's basically a virus and an antidote. The virus is bright green and the antidote is bright purple. It really gets on my nerves when they do stuff like that - bright green and purple. Yes, of course all medicines are brightly coloured....

Oh, and there's a chase involving the police that gets a bit Blues Brothers, in that hundreds of police cars seem to get trashed - many in slightly odd ways - just like in the Blues Brothers. You end up wondering if there are any police cars left in the entire state of Florida :/.

As with the first film, this one is suitably short and punchy, and you're never that far from a fight or a car chase. And despite reigning it in a bit there are also some good gags in there too.

So again, I would say a little silly, but an entertaining silly.