Transporter 2

  

Review by Richard Lee

Fox Home Entertainment / 2005 / 88 Minutes / Rated PG-13
Street Date: January 10, 2006

Specifications:
-DVD-Video
-DVD-5 (2-Sided)
-Region 1

Aspect Ratio:
-2.25:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
-1.33:1 Fullscreen

Audio:
-English 5.1 Dolby Digital 
-Spanish Dolby Surround
-French Dolby Surround

Subtitles:
-English
-Spanish
-None

Main Menu:
-Play
-Scene Selection
-Language Selection
-Special Features
-Inside Look (Fullscreen Side)

Special Features:
(Fullscreen Side)
-The Making Of Transporter 2
-Making The Music
-Blooper Reel

(Widescreen Side)
-Deleted and Extended Scenes

Having traded the French countryside for Miami, Florida and his BMW for an Audi Quattro with 19-inch, 12-spoke alloy wheels, Frank Martin (Jason Statham - the Irish Bruce Willis) is back in the driver’s seat for this sequel to 2002's “The Transporter”. When we first meet up with Frank, he has temporarily set aside his transporting occupation and ,“as a favor for a friend”, is chauffeuring the son of the National Drug Control Policy Director Jefferson Billings (Matthew Modine). Hmmm....the son of the drug czar and Miami - did Frank take this job thinking it was going to be a “walk in the park”? No sooner do we see Frank playing riddles with the son, Jack (Hunter Carly) and being a shoulder to cry on for the wife, Audrey (Amber Valletta), do we come upon a drug lord, Gianni (Alessandro Gassman) and his hitman posse which include a nervous Russian, Dimitri (British character actor Jason Flemyng) and a lingerie-clad waif, Lola (Kate Nauta) who looks like a cross between faux-singer Pink and Stallone-ex Brigitte Nielsen. Gianni wants no less than to take out the entire committee of drug-enforcement officials including Billings and to do that, he is willing to unleash a deadly virus in his son who will in turn infect his father who will go on to infect everyone attending the summit. Naturally, the virus has a time-limited toxicity (wouldn’t want to wipe out his entire clientele in the process) and Gianni has stashed away the antidote in case matters get out of control. Leave it to Frank and his French police buddy with the Italian name, Tarconi (Francois Berleand also back from the previous film), to set matters right with a mix of martial arts and, as Frank puts it, “a different kind of driving”. 

French director Louis Leterrier returns to helm this sequel as well as most of his film crew including producers Luc Besson and Steve Chasman and martial arts choreographer Cory Yuen. Statham, with his stone-faced delivery, does a fine job with a role that doesn’t require a lot of emoting in the first place; but where the first film made him out to be a tough, no-nonsense package deliverer, this sequel attempts to soften that image by juxtaposing him with a precocious little boy. I was immediately reminded of “Man On Fire” with Denzel Washington pulling chauffeuring duties with Dakota Fanning. Frank even has a new set of rules he goes by - much sillier than the previous set of rules, I must say. Producer Luc Besson, who developed these characters, has in the past depicted hardened characters who come to grips with their softer sides because of encounters with children - witness Leon from “The Professional” and Danny from “Unleashed”, for example (the latter another Leterrier-directed film) - so this progression with Frank Martin is understandable. But where to go from here? This makes the outlook for a Transporter 3 less than likely. The cast here pulls off basically by-the-numbers performances but poor Matthew Modine - what once was a promising leading man career with such memorable roles in cult films like “Private School” and Stanley Kubrick classics like “Full Metal Jacket” is now relegated to throwaway background roles like he has in this one; you could say he “jumped the shark” by agreeing to participate in that Renny Harlin bomb “Cutthroat Island”. As it stands, “Transporter 2" is a somewhat entertaining time-filler that is not quite as successful as its predecessor. 

Picture Quality:

Shot just like the original, the whole movie looks as if we were looking through a yellow lens filter. Yellow and gold tones permeate every frame, except the nighttime scenes. Faces have that day-glo look that Michael Bay utilized in “The Island”. Black levels are spot on - Frank’s black Audi is always spit-shined sparkly throughout every chase sequence. This points to another issue with this movie - the increasing use of computer-generated effects which detracts from the overall realism - a helicopter explosion is embarrassingly fake-looking and even Frank’s car is obviously animated when air-borne, which is much of the time. By virtue of the movie’s short running-time, the video transfer is well-done for a single layer DVD.


Audio Quality:

The single layer transfer precludes the inclusion of a DTS track but the 5.1 Dolby Digital track does the job adequately enough. The sound design is much like the original with bullets, screeching tires, punches, explosions, what have you, coming from all directions. The music score provides a driving beat during fight and car chase sequences. 

Scenes For Demonstration Purposes:

1. (18:50) - A Visit To The Dentist. 2. (25:50) - Frank Doing What He Does Best. 3. (54:30) - White Men Can Jump. 4. (68:00) Jet Li’s Fire Hose Technique. 5. (71:30) - “That Sum Bitch Can Drive!”. 6. (75:00) - Yeah, right. 

Special Features:

(Widescreen Side):
Deleted and Extended Scenes (20:37) - Thankfully with a “Play All” option, these scenes were either cut for pacing reasons or to avoid an “R” rating (parents should be cautioned that there is much more blood and violence in these scenes). All of this makes it painfully obvious that there will be a forth-coming “Unrated” version of “Transporter 2" which will dispense with the full-screen option and give us a dual-layered DVD with DTS as an added bonus - just like Fox did with “The Transporter”. 

(Fullscreen Side):
The Making of Transporter 2 (4:08) - has producer Steve Chasman and various cast members going through the paces in explaining the main plot and character motivations.

Making the Music (10:30) - has interviews with the people responsible for the music soundtrack of “Transporter 2" which is a more symphonic, electro-rock sound as opposed to the rap and jazz-infused music of the original. Everyone is French and requires an English translation, thankfully provided.

Blooper Reel ( 2:19) - contains screw-ups which are funnier than other blooper reels I’ve seen lately, especially the exchange between the two Jasons (Statham and Flemyng) where neither can keep a straight face.

“Inside Look” gives us a glimpse of the first chapter of a Russian-made horror trilogy called “Night Watch”. Rumors on the internet say that there will be an American-made version yet to go into production so as to which one this trailer alludes to is a bit confusing.