Movie Reviews

By Kam Williams
Special to the AFRO

(December 2, 2008) - In this critic’s opinion, Jason Statham was the obvious pick to replace Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. For the suave, self-assured leading man had fairly well established himself as the heir apparent to the role after a string of impressive action-oriented outings in everything from Snatch to Crank to The Transporter 1 and 2. Anyone who wants further proof need only check out Transporter 3, where the steely Statham makes the most of his latest opportunity to display his fighting skills while also adding a dash of romance to his repertoire.

The film opens like a variation of Speed, as it establishes a similarly urgent motif at the point of departure in order to keep the audience on edge for the duration of the high-octane adventure. Here we have Frank Martin (Statham), chauffeur nonpareil, who is “hired” at gunpoint by mobsters to drive a secret package to an undisclosed location. The catch is that to insure his allegiance, the thugs have strapped a bomb to his arm which is set to detonate if he wanders more than 75 feet from the vehicle.

Another complication is that Frank has a raccoon-eyed passenger coming along for the ride in Valentina (Natalya Rudakova), a pill-popping, vodka-swigging party girl he saved from the goons. What our hero doesn’t know is that the freckle-faced femme fatale just happens to be the kidnapped daughter of Leonid Vasilev (Jeroen Krabbe), a powerful Ukrainian politician presently being pressured to sign a government contract as ransom by the same creep (Robert Knepper) who attached the explosives to Frank.

Fair warning, Transporter 3’s storyline won’t hold up well to close scrutiny, as the point of the picture is the incessant visual capture provided by all the pyrotechnics and gravity-defying stunt sequences featuring carefully-orchestrated gunplay, hand-to-hand combat, and car, bike and train chases. Is the plot plausible? No, but it hurtles along at such a breakneck pace you don’t have a chance to pause to contemplate its preposterousness.

From Frank’s successfully running a gauntlet of a dozen bloodthirsty foes, to driving his souped-up sports car off an overpass and landing safely onto a speeding locomotive, to tipping the auto onto its side to negotiate a narrow passageway between a couple of 18-wheelers, this is the stuff escapist movie magic is meant to be made of. Mix in a little charm and romance, and you have all the fixins for the most dashing and debonair British character around today, even if his name can’t be James Bond.

Very good (3 stars)
Rated PG-13 for violence, intense action, sexuality and drug use.
Running time: 100 minutes
Studio: Lionsgate Films

‘High School Musical’

(November 13, 2008) - From the small screen to the silver screen, the actors in Disney's “High School Musical” series have seen their work expand into lucrative careers since its television premier almost three years ago. For actors Monique Coleman and Corbin Bleu, the two African-American leads in the series,...

<u>Film Review</u><br>Slackers Mentor Troubled Kids in Crass Shock Comedy

Film Review
Slackers Mentor Troubled Kids in Crass Shock Comedy

Sometimes a promising production can add up to far less than the sum of its parts. Case in point: {Role Models}. Director David Wain ({The Ten}) probably thought he had an inspired idea when he cast his crass comedy with some of the most famous faces from recent teensploits,...

<u>Film Review</u><br>Oliver Stone Chronicles Bush’s Career with Damning Bio-Pic

Film Review
Oliver Stone Chronicles Bush’s Career with Damning Bio-Pic

Oliver Stone has never been afraid to court controversy, and this bio-pic is no exception. The iconoclastic director has made presidential docudramas before (JFK and Nixon), but W. is the first about one still in office.

Expressing Himself

Born in Harlem on March 1, 1984, but raised in Brooklyn, Rob Brown got his start in showbiz when he answered a casting call for extras in Finding Forrester. Although he had no prior acting experience, at the age of 16 this natural talent landed the co-starring role of Jamal Wallace opposite Oscar-winner Sean Connery.

Fear Thy Neighbor

Many of us grew up being taught to “love thy neighbor,” but when your neighbor is a psycho whose ultimate mission is to make every moment of your life a living hell, it’s hard to stop by for tea and crumpets.

Controversial Action Comedy Is Ben Stiller’s Brainchild

You know you’re asking for trouble when you make a movie with a White actor in blackface wearing a lower lip extension who’s always talking jive jibberish, and with a mentally-challenged character who’s repeatedly teased about his disability.

Movie Review: Boris Kodjoe and Ryan Michelle Bathe Co-Star Family Flick

Edward (Boris Kodjoe) and Stacey Brown (Ryan Michelle Bathe) are a young African-American couple trying to make it as filmmakers in Los Angeles. However, they haven’t met with much success, primarily because they’ve been pitching the studios with their script for a wholesome family flick.

Meet Dave: Eddie Murphy Misfires as Brother from Another Planet

In 1984, John Sayles directed The Brother from Another Planet, a thought-provoking, sci-fi comedy about an alien who washes ashore at Ellis Island and makes his way to Manhattan where he does his best to blend in because he’s being chased by a couple of bounty hunters who had followed him to Earth.

Will Smith as Alcoholic Superhero in Need of AA and a New Image

John Hancock (Will Smith) is a superhero who has fallen out of favor with the public, and for good reason. First of all, he can usually be found passed out with a bottle of whiskey in his hand, draped across a bench in downtown L.A. He routinely antagonizes pedestrians, behaving no differently than a typical bum living on Skid Row,...