After a series of disappointing action flicks (hello, XXX), it's good to see one that actually delivers more than expected. And in Jason Statham, Britain can now boast its first legitimate cinematic action hero in a long time. Or at least, the first not best known by a three-digit number. He plays a guy who will deliver anything for the right price - kinda like FedEx with fewer rules (three, to be exact) - who gets into trouble when he opens one package, and finds a Chinese girl (Shu Qi). Mayhem ensues, though amusingly, he only really gets peeved at the villains after they blow up his BMW. Despite some hyper-kinetic camerawork which on occasion makes this seem like The Kung-Fu Witch Project, there's a lot to like here, with Statham a great, taciturn hero who is clearly also physically adept. The chemistry with his package is notably lacking - she has the English delivery of a cocker spaniel, and some seriously clunky lines too - and the film wastes little time on it, preferring to occupy itself with inventive car chases and fights, to the extent that it becomes a video-game with really good graphics. Still, the energy and imagination is such that you have to forgive it such excesses as the oil-wrestling (in truth just a Western variant of the "ludicrous but really cool" school of martial arts), and a final sequence shamelessly borrowed from Raiders of the Lost Ark. But I'd happily bet Statham could kick Vin Diesel's arse any day...
B
