Curator Watchlist
A sleek, early-2000s action vehicle with slick car chases, efficient fight choreography, and Jason Statham’s star-making cool. It’s best enjoyed as stylish, slightly trashy genre fun rather than a tightly written thriller; the plot is thin, but the momentum and attitude carry it.
Where to watch: Buy
Wed · 1h 32m
Director: Corey Yuen, Louis Leterrier
Starring: Jason Statham, Shu Qi, François Berléand
Former Special Forces officer Frank Martin will deliver anything to anyone for the right price, and his no-questions-asked policy puts him in high demand. But when he realizes his latest cargo is alive, it sets in motion a dangerous chain of events. The bound and gagged Lai is being smuggled to France by a shady American businessman, and Frank works to save her as his own illegal activities are uncovered by a French detective.
Corey Yuen, Louis Leterrier
Jason Statham, Shu Qi, François Berléand
A sleek, early-2000s action vehicle with slick car chases, efficient fight choreography, and Jason Statham’s star-making cool. It’s best enjoyed as stylish, slightly trashy genre fun rather than a tightly written thriller; the plot is thin, but the momentum and attitude carry it.
The Transporter is a pure star-vehicle: cool cars, cleanly staged fights, and a lead performance built on posture, precision, and barely suppressed menace. It’s the kind of movie that knows exactly what it is and mostly gets away with it because the action is brisk and the tone never pretends to be more sophisticated than it is.
What gives it staying power is the physicality. The fight scenes have a nimble, Hong Kong-inflected snap, and the movie keeps finding excuses to let its hero solve problems with choreography rather than dialogue. The result is less a great thriller than a highly watchable action showcase with a memorable central image of immaculate competence.
The downside is that the story is generic and the emotional material is thin, with some of the era’s usual macho and exploitative baggage intact. If you’re here for narrative depth, it’s a shrug; if you’re here for stylish momentum and a new action icon arriving fully formed, it still delivers.
Joe Lynch (3.5★) · 759 likes
I'm so gaytham for Statham.
reibureibu (4★) · 505 likes
Statham single-handedly keeping the spirit of HK martial arts movies alive in '00s Hollywood as there is more love and creativity and (most importantly) fun put into this than any other American action flick of this time. Bring back: 1. car chases punctuated with slap bass while generic bad guys in ski masks make funny faces, 2. gun-fu slapstick shenanigans where spinning jump-kicks beat men with AK-47s while sex-tape music plays, and 3. ridiculously-hot leads who can't stand each other
Jade talks too much🎅🏻🎄 (5★) · 320 likes
Am I insane for thinking this is the most romantic movie of all time?😍 That's a rhetorical question (unless you agree with me that it is😈)! It’s just so ridiculous and perfect!👌🏻 Lai gets kidnapped by Jason Statham and quickly they fall in love💘 after some tie up time🪢. She's literally living my dream😳. Statham also loses his shirt👀, gets slathered in oil🛢️, then slides around the room beating up a bunch of naughty men🤜🏻. It’s the perfect Valentine’s Day movie for me!🥵🍷 So sorry for this “review”, people.I need to retire from Letterboxd🫣.
Jade talks too much🎅🏻🎄 (5★) · 242 likes
“You don’t need your mouth to pee”- Frank Martin This is such a trashy 2000s action flick but I have so much fun watching it.😂 Completely ridiculous but still a fave of mine. The scene where he cuts a li’l hole through the tape on her mouth so he can feed her juice is too damn funny🧃. He’s such a romantic.😍 Stath’s character in this might be a bit of a sociopath but Shu Qi is still so lucky. Why… more
Michael James (3★) · 215 likes
Jason Stathom plays a tailor made role for him, as the cool n stylish gateway driver with sleek action skills and strict principles. It has a pretty much generic storyline and an uneven narrative, still is very much serviceable full blown action junkie movie. Good dumb fun.
Shares the same hard-charging Statham energy, but pushes the absurdity into a more manic, punk-action direction.
The obvious follow-up if you want more of the same polished stunt work and deadpan action hero persona.
Another glossy early-2000s ensemble crime caper with cars, attitude, and clean commercial action.
A stylish, kinetic action vehicle that blends sci-fi, martial arts, and star charisma in a similar era.
For viewers who like efficient, grounded action with a professional operative at the center.
A cooler, more adult version of the car-chase-and-criminal-professionals formula.
A later reboot of the same premise for viewers curious about the franchise’s broader appeal.
If what you like here is the swagger and criminal underworld energy, this is a sharper, funnier match.
Shares the propulsive crime-movie rhythm and playful underworld mechanics.
For more intense, highly physical action choreography with minimal narrative fat.
A great pick for fans of raw martial-arts spectacle and stunt-driven momentum.
A tougher, more emotional rescue thriller with a similarly relentless forward drive.
professional code, mercenary ethics, kidnapping and rescue, crime syndicates, stoic masculinity, romantic tension, identity and secrecy, violence as craft
action thriller, crime, car chases, martial arts, early 2000s, stylish, neo-noir, homoerotic subtext, buddy-cop adjacent, slick choreography