Jason Statham is back to once again violently rearrange people’s internal organs with his hands and feet. But this time’s it’s different, as not only is his latest bit of ‘skop, skiet en donner” based on a series of really popular novels, but he’s now got Jennifer Lopez – fresh from being driven to tears by people’s bad singing – to add her sultry sexiness to the heist film.
Throw in an angry Michael Chiklis (“It’s clobbering time!”) for good measure, and you have yourself another Statham actioner that should keep the fans happy.
Jason Statham and Jennifer Lopez team up to get their cut in the crime thriller, “Parker,” based on the series of bestselling novels by Donald E. Westlake.
Parker (Jason Statham) is a professional thief who lives by a personal code of ethics: Don’t steal from people who can’t afford it and don’t hurt people who don’t deserve it. But on his latest heist, his crew double crosses him, steals his stash, and leaves him for dead.
Determined to make sure they regret it, Parker tracks them to PalmBeach, playground of the rich and famous, where the crew is planning their biggest heist ever. Donning the disguise of a rich Texan, Parker takes on an unlikely partner, Leslie (Jennifer Lopez), a savvy insider, who’s short on cash, but big on looks, smarts and ambition. Together, they devise a plan to hijack the score, take everyone down and get away clean.
So let’s get straight to addressing the elephant in the room: I have no idea why this film is called Parker or even has any connection to Westlake’s pulp character, because for all intents and purposes, Jason Statham is once again simply playing Jason Statham. In a cowboy hat.
Adaptation faithfulness aside though, this looks like a vintage Statham effort. At this point in time, you’re either a fan of the man’s work or you’re not, and I highly doubt he’s going to be upsetting the apple cart any time soon to try and attract a new audience.
The film was written by John J McLaughlin who penned Darren Aranofsky’s Academy Award winning Black Swan and also the upcoming Hitchcock (with Sir Anthony Hopkins in the titular role) which is looking rather excellent. Unfortunately, his pen was also responsible for the rather mediocre Tommy Lee Jones action comedy Man of the House, so lets hope that he brings his A-game this time around.
Statham’s last effort, Safe, was really one of the best films of his career thus far, so I’d like to see him continue that momentum with this. First step: Never do that godawful Texan accent ever again!
Last Updated: October 4, 2012
James Francis
October 4, 2012 at 12:21
Oh, please, not Jennifer Lopez. I like Statham’s stuff, but this really feels like more and more of the same – not only with his films, but many other ones as well.