The Good

Jason Statham is very good as an action star.

The Bad

I would have thought this release might have had more extras.

The Transporter is one of those movies that seems to come from nowhere, it looks like a run of the mill action movie but it actually is a bit better than you might imagine. Jason Statham stars as Frank Martin, a former Special Forces officer who has decamped to France and makes a nice living driving high priced cargo to and from various places. Then he discovers that what he's transporting is an Asian woman named Lai (Shu Qi) into France. Conflicted, Frank delivers the "package" to its proper place and then realizes that what he's done is wrong. So, like all good action movies, Martin sets about righting his wrong while trying to avoid numerous bullets and other people who might kill him in the process.

This is the kind of movie that certainly deserves to take its place in the lexicon of Blu-ray Disc. It is filled with big action scenes, lots of spectacle and just enough dialogue to make users realize that The Transporter isn't merely style over substance.

Features

Commentary Track

Jason Statham and Producer Steve Chasman are on hand here to talk about this movie and they seem to be having a good time. I honestly got the feeling that these men enjoyed working together as they discussed various aspects of the production. I had a feeling that this was going to be pretty engaging to listen to mainly because when you get an actor and a producer they seem to have different sets of stories. Statham's seemed to center around the day to day workings of the production (who directed what as the film had Louis Leterrier and Coey Yuen directing), while Chasman was in the trenches and focusing on the nuts and bolts aspect of things.

Video

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 - Film in 1080p HD resolution. I was quite impressed with the look of this Blu-ray Disc. While I think that the sequel might give more bang for one's proverbial buck, this film seems to move in just the right way to make for an engaging viewing experience. I felt the the color tones stayed strong in both the interior and exterior shots, while sometimes, the exterior shots seemed like they got a bit overblown if the scene was held too long.

Audio

Audio - English: DTS HD 5.1. Subtitles: English, Spanish. There is one word to describe the way the audio sounded on this release: sharp. During the action scenes, I was surprised to see that there was just as much going on audio-wise as there was visually. Things sounded really full throughout this movie even during those (brief) moments where Frank Martin was allowed to really contemplate his seemingly impossible situation.

Package

Jason Statham flies across this front cover with two guns in his hands as a flame follows with him. The back of this Blu-ray Disc cover shows us some images from the films, it gives a small description of what this movie is about, a Special Features listing and specs for your Blu-ray player.

Final Word

All in all, I think that The Transporter is another example of how Jason Statham might be one of the more underappreciated actors working today. He seems to be able to do action and acting and that makes the character of Frank Martin have a lot more depth. I also liked how they did the relationship between the Martin and Lai because it seemed quite genuine. I don't think that I would go so far as to call it one of the great screen romances, but these characters play very well off of one another. It was in their scenes together that I really came to appreciate Statham's portrayal of Martin, without feeling like the moments had been calculated to make this character seem deeper than he was.

In closing, I think that The Transporter makes for a solid experience on Blu-ray Disc. At times it boggles my mind about all the different formats roaming the DVD landscape, but for now I am quite happy to know that the next generation formats exist to present films in this way.

The Transporter was released October 2, 2002.