Parker (2013)

Simply Perfect

Admirable film.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is an Action pic, so good action, fun one-liners, and you are pulling for the good bad guys instead of the bad bad guys all the way.I've wasted so many hours watching movies that cost so much more to make and came with gushing reviews and were garbage, so when this one turned out to be unassuming, likable and fun, I was happily surprised.Also, silky and sexy performance from Emma Booth, and Lopez is fantastic in her role too. Statham does his thing, but it is the actors around him that have to give what he does credibility.One of those films that when you think back on it, might not be as shallow as you first thought.

Parker is a movie with a simple revenge driven plot about a thief- with-codes named Parker (Statham). The movie opens with Parker doing a job with a five-man crew who he doesn't know. The job goes well, but the other gangsters double-cross Parker and leave him for dead. Parker barely survives, and with the help of real-estate agent Leslie Rogers (Lopez) he makes it his mission to get back to them. Anyone familiar with Jason Statham starred movies knows not to expect much but there's usually decent action, funny one liners and spectacular car chases. Unfortunately, this movie has none of that. We get an incredible boring movie that is to long where nothing happens between the opening and ending scene. We get Statham going 'undercover' as a rich Texan (with the worst fake accent ever) to buy real- estate, just to force Jenifer Lopez character into the movie. It is pointless when he can also just go over to his former crime buddies place and blast them all apart. I'm of the opinion that Jenifer Lopez is not a good actress and this movie is no exception to that opinion. She is just horrible and her character makes absolutely no sense to be in this movie. My final complaint is the ridiculous amounts of damage Statham's character get's to endure that he can just shake off. He get's thrown out of a car driving at least 80 km/h while he is shot multiple times, and still lives! Even Arnold's Terminator had trouble recovering from that amount of damage. Watch Blitz or Killer Elite instead if your in for an evening of mindless entertaining with Statham and avoid this boring slug-fest like the plague.

Mel Gibson's career exploded, he did a remake of the Richard Stark novel about a thief who is double-crossed and rains down vengeance. It was called Payback. Payback was a remake of John Boorman's superb Point Blank (1967) with Lee Marvin. There's another remake out there with Robert Duvall called The Outfit.To paraphrase George C. Scott in Hardcore, "Turn it off! For the love of God, turn it off!"It was a great story, originally. The Boorman movie was surreal and psychotic, at least until you realized you were watching a ghost story. There were parts of the Duvall flick that were pretty good. Watching Sheree North parade around in that little bathrobe thingy comes to mind. The Gibson flick was good until we got involved with a weird black van filled with ninja hit-people socking and punching in the street.But stop the remakes, alright? I was sort of involved in this absurd actioner (absurdity, defined as watching Jason Statham jumping out of a car at 55 miles per hour, getting shot, and getting better) when up pops Jennifer Lopez, a woman who can act, but apparently chose not to here. When realtor Lopez shows up, the movie crashes, and never recovers.The crimes themselves are big, splashy heists that stretch the viewer's tolerance of absurdity to the limit. Statham sleepwalks through everything he does, except for when he adopts a ridiculous Texas drawl (when he slips, Lopez chirps, "I just knew you weren't from Texas!").Michael Chiklis and Nick Nolte are wasted in their parts, and the character list in general is so murky that the viewer has to accept that somebody got peeved when somebody did something to somebody else, and where the Hell did Statham get those guns after he gets fished out of a canal after being shot and stabbed and gored and mutilated and made fun of by his nasty compatriots?Am I, possibly, overthinking here?Yup.Suffice it to say that if the mere thought of shooting and stabbing and goring and mutilating is all you need in a movie, Taylor Hackford's 85th remake of a crime novel written once, Parker, will be all you'll ever need.

I have a mixed opinion about the leading British star best known for the Transporter films, he does the same thing almost every film, but I do quite often like them, and I was sure this one would be the same thing, directed by Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman, The Devil's Advocate, Ray). Basically Parker (Jason Statham) is a professional thief with a conscience and a code, he will not steal from the poor and hurt innocent people, his latest job is joining a crew of four men he doesn't know: Melander (The Shield's Michael Chiklis), Carlson (The Wire's Wendell Pierce), Ross (Crank: High Voltage's Clifton Collins Jr.), and Hardwicke (Micah Hauptman) in taking the gate money from the Ohio State Fair. They are successful, but Parker is disgusted when an innocent man is killed during, he sees it as unprofessional standards, he refuses to do another robbery with them and demands his cut, the crew refuse and decide to shoot Parker and leave him for dead. The crew are unaware that Parker is found by people passing, in hospital he has survived his beating, being shot, thrown from a moving car, and being shot again, after recovering he makes his way out of the hospital and vows to get back at the ones who tried to kill him, another one of his codes. Parker poses as a wealthy Texan businessman looking for a new high-price property, he hires real estate agent Leslie Rodgers (Jennifer Lopez) to show him around Palm Beach, Florida, in fact he is searching for the crew from a lead from his mentor Hurley (Nick Nolte) to a new heist they plan. Parker finds where the crew are holding up and plans his plot to get them, but they learn he is alive and contact the mob they are now working for, they send hit-man Kroll (Daniel Bernhardt) to take care of him, and Parker's girlfriend Claire (Emma Booth) gets herself caught in the middle as well. Leslie also finds out through researching that Parker was not who he said he was, she is intrigued by him and follows him, she is keen to help him in any way he can, not realising Parker plans to kill the men who betrayed him. The crew pull off another big robbery of valued jewellery, but Leslie and Parker find their hideout and the thief is able to kill the four men, he promises to help Leslie and her family get a better life, and in the end, months later she is shocked to have a delivery of thousands of dollars from Parker. Also starring Patti LuPone as Ascension, Leslie's mother and Ant- Man's Bobby Cannavale as Jake Fernandez. Statham does his usual hard man seeking vengeance well, Lopez certainly has the looks and curves, and Chiklis does well as the meanest of the villains, there is nothing new here, a man wants revenge on those who wronged him and kills them, but there are still some great bone-crunching fight and action sequences, it is a likable enough crime thriller. Worth watching!